1 November 2010

Phillip and Janet Graney the first shared equity tenants

| johnboy
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The ACT’s Minister for Housing, Joy Burch, has announced the good fortune of the Graney family as the first Housing ACT tenants to use the ACT Government’s Shared Equity Scheme to buy their Kambah home of 14 years.

Under the Shared Equity Scheme, tenants who cannot afford to buy the full value of their home can buy a percentage of it, with Housing ACT retaining the remaining percentage until it is also purchased by the tenant.

Ms Burch said the scheme allows tenants to progressively purchase the property, increasing their equity and eventually moving to full ownership. Today she joined IMB in congratulating Mr and Mrs Graney on becoming homeowners.

“Seeing former tenants like Mr and Mrs Graney buy the home that they have lived in as tenants for 14 years is very rewarding for me and Housing ACT,” Ms Burch said.

“It affirms this Government’s decision to develop this innovative scheme, which extends the benefits of home ownership to people in our community who were previously excluded.”

Pity about renters in the commercial market.

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Many years ago public housing helped young low income families to have a decent house at resonable rent. The houses were also sold at low price but when people started selling them and making a decent profit it was stopped. Now it appears that rather than help people on low incomes or with genuine needs , these houses are given to drug addicts and alcoholics. Why should someone who finds themselves in need of help be placed among undesirable types. Anyone who receives assistance should be held accountable for their actions or told to find their own accommodation not rely on hard working tax payers to fund them.

It’s been a while since the scheme was introduced and the details may have shifted, but this is how I remember DHCS’s plan:

* Public Housing tenants in Canberra have ‘security of tenure’. This means that once they’re in they can stay forever, regardless of their personal circumstances (provided they don’t breach their lease – ie pay rent and be a good tenant and you’re solid).

* This was restricting the supply of stock to those more in need.

* A plan was deduced and the relevant legislation changed so that any Housing tenants with a household income over $x/annum for two consecutive years (who would’ve been paying full rent anyway) would have two options – buy the house or phuck off.

* The shared equity scheme was arranged so that those on the borderline could actually afford option one. I believe the scheme was also extended to any tenant who can get finance to do it, regardless of Housing ACT’s assessment of your income.

* The funds raised through the sales of these properties are to be used to fund the purchase of new stock for housing, increasing the availability of accommodation to those most in need.

I am hopeful that this is the first step towards ensuring Housing properties are available for those who really need them, not just those who are happily taking advantage of a poorly executed system.

Like one former Housing ACT staff member on an executive income who was still a Housing tenant – someone with first hand knowledge of the truly terrible plight of many of those seeking accommodation; someone who would rather take advantage of this gaping hole in the system as opposed to freeing up a property for someone who truly needed it; someone who clearly felt no guilt going to work every morning to tell those who are sleeping in their cars with 3 kids that there is nothing available.

I’m usually all for criticizing the system and in this case that would be fair, but maybe we should be vilifying, nay, crucifying the individuals. The system opened the door, but it’s the individuals without a moral compass that have walked through it.

The rules have changed since then. That guy and his partner would have been on the lease with his parents at the time, and paying full rent for the property, that can’t happen these days.

screaming banshee9:26 pm 02 Nov 10

Complete BS, if the tenant can afford to buy the property they can piss off to the private rental/property market and free up the property for someone who actually needs it.

I worked with a guy in QLD who had moved into his parents public housing property when his parent retired to their property on the coast, together with his partner they were pulling in around $80k (in 2001). He was talking about a scheme where they could be eligible to purchase the property with previous rent paid being counted against the market value of the house.

If f*cking sick of it, between this shit and the wankers swapping properties on allclassifieds no wonder there is such on long waiting list.

ALL PUBLIC HOUSING TENANTS SHOULD BE ASSESSED ANNUALLY TO DETERMINE IF THEY STILL MEET THE ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA….IF NOT THEN THEY CAN PISS OFF.

Too many people treat public housing as a free ride and once they are in they never leave. In the meantime people who need the support cant get it, its a joke.

Mr Evil said :

“Under the Shared Equity Scheme, tenants who cannot afford to buy the full value of their home can buy a percentage of it, with Housing ACT retaining the remaining percentage until it is also purchased by the tenant.”

How long do the Govt give them to buy the house out completely? If this couple have had to take up a housing property for 14 years (supposedly because their income was too low to be able to afford private rental) I can’t see them being able to buy the house out completely in a short space of time.

What happens if they default on their ‘repayments’ – does the Govt then kick them out and hand the home over to someone else on the waiting list?

How much do the tenants pay for the property – current property valuation, or some other amount?

What happens if the tenant dies halfway through the process of buying the property – does the estate get a percentage of the property value at a forced sale, or do the Govt just pay back the amount paid up to that point by the deceased?

Tenants are required to make 2 compulsory payments, 5 years and 15 years after they settle on the purchase of the home. All must be paid within 15 years. They can make any additional payments at any time.

The property is in the name of the tenant, and the ACT Govt’s equity share is protected by mortgage registered over the property. So if the tenants default on repayment, the ACT Govt has similar rights to any bank that would have a mortgage.

Price is determined by an independent certified valuer.

I think you mean if the tenant dies before paying out the ACT Govt’s share (within 15 years). If so the standard process applies for deceased estates. Think of it as the tenants property (as they are on title) with the ACT Govt having a mortgage which secures repayment of 30% of the value of the property (less any repayments made).

See:
http://www.dhcs.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/156334/Shared_Equity_Fact_Sheet_.pdf

James-T-Kirk10:42 am 02 Nov 10

Awesome!

That is a wonderful plan.

My proposal is this:

1) Sell my current place to the Government, and rent that for a couple of years – having paid some of my current mortgage, that should nett me about $280K which I can invest

2) Enter into a ‘Shared Equity’ arrangement, where I then buy back the place in $50k chunks – The repayments on those bits should be piss small, allowing me to divert the rest of the money I was paying into other investments.

3) Rinse – repeat.

Woot!!!

georgesgenitals9:46 am 02 Nov 10

Mr Evil said :

“Under the Shared Equity Scheme, tenants who cannot afford to buy the full value of their home can buy a percentage of it, with Housing ACT retaining the remaining percentage until it is also purchased by the tenant.”

How long do the Govt give them to buy the house out completely? If this couple have had to take up a housing property for 14 years (supposedly because their income was too low to be able to afford private rental) I can’t see them being able to buy the house out completely in a short space of time.

What happens if they default on their ‘repayments’ – does the Govt then kick them out and hand the home over to someone else on the waiting list?

How much do the tenants pay for the property – current property valuation, or some other amount?

What happens if the tenant dies halfway through the process of buying the property – does the estate get a percentage of the property value at a forced sale, or do the Govt just pay back the amount paid up to that point by the deceased?

Lots of interesting questions. The idea is great in theory, in that it helps people into home ownership, but I think in practice there will be lots of hassles. For example, can the govt ‘foreclose’ the property?

“Under the Shared Equity Scheme, tenants who cannot afford to buy the full value of their home can buy a percentage of it, with Housing ACT retaining the remaining percentage until it is also purchased by the tenant.”

How long do the Govt give them to buy the house out completely? If this couple have had to take up a housing property for 14 years (supposedly because their income was too low to be able to afford private rental) I can’t see them being able to buy the house out completely in a short space of time.

What happens if they default on their ‘repayments’ – does the Govt then kick them out and hand the home over to someone else on the waiting list?

How much do the tenants pay for the property – current property valuation, or some other amount?

What happens if the tenant dies halfway through the process of buying the property – does the estate get a percentage of the property value at a forced sale, or do the Govt just pay back the amount paid up to that point by the deceased?

eyeLikeCarrots10:02 pm 01 Nov 10

So… if the ACT Gov allows families to buy their rentals, does that reduce the supply of low income housing for the people who’ve been waiting for 2 years ?

The only other thing I can think of is that doing this might raise a big bucket of cash for ACT Housing to build more ?

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