Shared ownership provides a route to home ownership for self-employed local carpenter

Carl Phillips and his partner Kelly are some of the lucky new homeowners to have moved into the beautiful Pen y Porth development, in Burry Port, Carmarthenshire.

The couple completed their purchase at the end of April this year and have enjoyed settling into their new home and getting to know their neighbours. Carl tells us:

“It’s really lovey: it’s a nice area, and it’s lovely and quiet, even though part of it is still a building site at the moment, you don’t even notice it!”

Carl works as a self-employed carpenter and fitter of PVC windows, doors, conservatories, and roofs – he’s very busy at the moment with the high demand for home improvements! However, the nature of his work meant that it was hard for the couple to get a mortgage:

“We’re both self-employed, and my partner’s catering business had really suffered because of the covid-19 pandemic. Mortgage providers wouldn’t touch us, even though we’d owned a house before.”

The couple saw the homes at Pen y Porth being constructed in November and discussed moving there. They came to view a show home, and were impressed by what they saw, but worried that their lack of access to a mortgage would prevent them from buying.

Thankfully for Carl and Kelly, Pobl Living were offering the option to purchase through their shared ownership scheme. Carl tells us why it made sense for them:

“Shared ownership made buying at Pen y Porth an option for us. We’ve watched the development from start to finish and we loved the show home when we came to see it – and the views are incredible! Shared ownership allowed us to live here, we wouldn’t have been able to afford it without this. We also liked that there was the option to staircase up in the future in – it’s been a really big help for us.”

Carl is also full of praise for the Pobl Living sales team:

“There was good communication throughout – Nicola was brilliant, she kept us informed with everything that was going on. We were in a rush to move, as we’d already sold our previous house and were living in a caravan! She pushed it through and did all she could to help get things moving – we had fantastic service.”

He also thinks that more people should consider shared ownership if they are struggling to get a traditional mortgage:

“I would definitely recommend it: there’s a few clauses that make it different to owning your home outright, so I think people should definitely read all the documents and make sure they are aware of what they’re signing up to. But it’s worked for us and made living here affordable – we love it!”

“It’s great to hear first-hand the benefits that Carl and Kelly have experienced when purchasing a new home through a shared ownership scheme. It’s an alternative way to purchasing a new home that has so many advantages; we see buyers being able to put down less of a deposit, and the mortgage and rent combined is comparable to the rent they would have paid in the private rented sector and of course they can purchase more shares if they want to until they own 100%. Shared ownership is an integral part of the range of purchase options Pobl Living are able to offer customers; whether it’s shared ownership, Help to Buy Wales or buying outright, we’re sure that we’ve got a product that will suit the majority of home buyers.” Pam Bickel, Head of Sales Development at Pobl

What is Shared Ownership?

Shared ownership is our most flexible purchase option; you can choose how much of a property you buy and buy more if you want to as and when it’s convenient for you.

Typically, you buy a share of between 50-70% of a property and pay a rent on the part that you don’t own. The higher the share you purchase, the less rent you will have to pay. Over time you have the option to increase your shares if you can afford to do so, this is called staircasing.

Dependent on the development, we can either offer our own Shared ownership scheme or the Welsh Government’s Shared Ownership Wales initiative. Shared ownership is a great way of getting your foot onto the property ladder and we’re passionate about promoting the benefits of shared ownership to more buyers in Wales.