Travelling and working in Australia for several years had been a dream come true for Mark and Hannah Saddington, but they now wanted to put down roots at home in the UK. Sadly, with minimal savings and having not invested in property previously, buying their own home seemed impossible. That is until they decided to look at Help to Buy and discovered shared ownership at Domovo.
With Hannah hailing from Scotland and Mark wanting to commute to London if work required, they settled on the area around Bedford as a good central location with easy access to both the A1 and M1.After registering with Help to Buy, Mark began browsing to see which properties were available and quickly found the perfect one. Worried it would have been snapped up already, he called and discovered a buyer had pulled out that very morning and the property was theirs if they wanted it.
The three-bedroom home in the village of Elstow was part of a small new-build development on the outskirts of Bedford, with a large garden and views across the surrounding countryside.
Mark said: “We wanted to be close to London and the commuter belt but we can also jump on the M1 to Scotland so we settled on Bedford as a process of elimination.
“We are still on the cusp of the countryside too. The first day after registering this came up and I thought it must have gone, but we were very lucky.
“When we went to look around it we thought it was stunning and everything we wanted but couldn’t afford.”
Initially, the couple bought a 45 per cent share in the house, which has a price tag of £260,000 and put down around £11,000 in deposit. Since they moved in four years ago with their two children aged 11 and 8, they have been able to slowly purchase more shares and now own the property outright.
“It was lovely to be able to staircase and buy it all. Buying a house we couldn’t afford at the time was possible because of shared ownership.
“We paid a rent on the shares we didn’t buy, but at much less than at commercial rent which means we could put more away and bought the rest of the shares little-by-little.
“Having this house as an investment, particularly for the girl’s future, is great,” he added.
As the house was a new-build, it also meant the family didn’t have to spend money on improvements which also helped with saving.
It was the couple’s first time buying and said it was a learning curve. The whole process took just three months from viewing to moving in.
“Domovo were always there to talk to or answer questions we had. This was such a doable way of buying a home, to chip away at it,” said Mark.
Find out more about Mark’s story, with our video below.
