I dont know what the housing market is like there, but I imagine it is similar to the USA.  If you buy a home and take care of it, you will make money on it.  My wife and I bought our first house within 2 years of getting married.  We sold it 4 years later and made $30,000 on it.  Our home here in Florida cost us $200K when we bought it last June.  Houses in the neighborhood are now selling for $250K-$300K.  When you rent a house or apartment you are throwing your money down the drain.  We have been home owners for about 5 years now and we have built up almost 100K in equity.  Buying a home is one of the best investments you can make.  Even homes that need to be torn down and rebuilt are selling for $150K in this area just because of the value of the property and the location.  I figure that by the time we are ready to sell this house and move up another level we will be able to sell it for well over $300K.

Just to give you an idea.  Our home is a 3 bedroom 2 bath home with about 1800 square feet of living space on an average size lot.  My neighbor is buying up homes in the neighborhood, putting about $10K in updates into them and selling them a few weeks later for a profit of $20K plus.  You can make money on a home even if you live in a high crime neighborhood around here.

housing association

But finiding even a flat with a garage for ~£50k is almost impossible.

you want to move down south mate, the tiniest 1 bed flat (and i mean tiny) goes for 130k plus and you might get an off road parking space if youre lucky :shock:

our ex council 3 bed semi is worth nearly 250k, so i wont be buying my own place anytime soon :?

Quote from: sdp

Its not worth starting a new topic for but can anyone tell me what 50% share means - i.e. whos buying the other half?

Ive also seen 50% shares with estate agents and was considering it, not so much now.

What put you off? Does it work out more expensive?

when i looked at the 50% share thing i worked out that you are paying pretty much 80% of the morgage you would be if you have a 100% share but still only getting 50% of the house.
So it is abit cheaper but not really good value.

You have to pay rent to usethe other 50% of the house though