What I Own: I ditched my London flatshare for a £340,000 shared ownership home — it was the only property I viewed

9 hours ago 1

W8media. W8media SE6 Flat feature . The home of Alan Brownlee 2 Ferdinand Court Adenmore Road SE6 4BG 31/03/2025

This week, we’re in Catford meeting Alan (Picture: w8media)

Welcome back to What I Own – Metro’s property series where we speak to homeowners about getting on the ladder.

This week, we’re back in London meeting full-time nurse Alan.

Having rented in the Big Smoke for the last seven years, he became a homeowner in January 2025 when he picked up the keys to his £340,000 shared ownership property in Catford, South London.

He previously lived 10 minutes down the road, but after taking on extra shifts at work and making clever use of his LISA (Lifetime ISA), he managed to save enough for a deposit on a 40% share.

Here’s what he had to say about his property journey…

Tell us about yourself!

Ready to start your homebuying journey?

You can access completely fee-free mortgage advice with London & Country (L&C) Mortgages, a partner of Metro. Customers benefit from:

– Award winning service from the UK’s leading mortgage broker

– Expert advisors on hand 7 days a week

– Access to 1000s of mortgage deals from across the market

Unlike many mortgage brokers, L&C won’t charge you a fee for their advice.

Find out how much you could borrow online

Mortgage service provided by London & Country Mortgages (L&C), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (registered number: 143002). The FCA does not regulate most Buy to Let mortgages. Your home or property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

I’m a full-time nurse at a central London hospital trust. I’ve been living in London for around seven years, most of that time with a previous long-term partner.

When that relationship came to an end less than two years ago, I left without any significant savings and had a bit of a life reset, moving into a very cheap, shared house.

I had always wanted a place of my own, mainly for the security of knowing where I would be living, and during that time, I worked a lot of overtime to replenish my savings and build a deposit for a long-term home.

Whereabouts is your property? What do you think of the area?

The place I moved to that enabled me to save is called Catford which is just below Lewisham and served by two different train stations.

I don’t think I intended on staying there to buy, but it’s close enough to where I work for me to cycle, which was important to me, and has its own high street and some nice parks. It was definitely more of a grower.

And so when a nice property came up that was almost on top of the stations, it made sense to stay here, and I’m now really glad that I did.

When did you move in?

I completed on January 22, 2025.

How much does your property cost?

It’s a bit complicated as I initially bought a share in the property under the shared ownership scheme, with the overall value of the property taken at £340,000.

The seller had purchased a 40% share, and after looking at the costs, I decided to maintain that share for my purchase.

How much was your deposit?

£20,400.

What is the monthly cost of living here now, both mortgage and bills?

My mortgage costs £660, and my portion of the rent is currently £688 (it’ll be increasing in April to just over £700). In total, the bills come to around £450, but this can fluctuate depending on usage.

I currently have a flatmate living in the spare room, and they pay £500 per month, including bills. I pay the rest. My partner, Botsang, doesn’t currently live here but is likely to move in this year.

Alan hopes that his partner Botsang (L) will be able to move in soon (Picture: w8media)

How did you save up for your deposit?

I’m lucky that I can often agree to extra working days in my existing role, so I’ve often used those shifts to supplement my regular income.

I stepped that up in the last 14 months to save some additional money. I also took advantage of the relatively good savings rates and bonuses available during that time. I was also able to use the government LISA scheme to get an additional bonus of £2,000 for saving £8,000 in their savings scheme over two financial years.

Both of those were arranged through the Moneybox app, which made the process pretty simple. I was also very grateful to my mum for giving me another £2,000, which in the end topped me up to well over the deposit amount I needed.

What was the process of getting a mortgage like for you? Did you find any parts challenging?

I had visited the London Home Show hosted by Share to Buy, which introduced me to a number of mortgage brokers. I picked one that didn’t charge fees for NHS staff and they made it all quite easy.

I would usually look for financial providers on my own, but it was nice to be able to rely on an expert with whom I could adjust figures to find a sensible offer – so I would say it was easier than expected.

I can imagine the challenging part for most people is collecting all the required documentation, but I started that process long before it came to application time, so it wasn’t too stressful in the end.

What is shared ownership?

Shared ownership mortgage schemes allow you to buy a portion of your property, while still paying rent to a landlord, local council or housing association. In some cases, this means saving up for a deposit of just 5% of your share of the home.

It gives first-time and other buyers the opportunity to purchase a share in a leasehold property. They take out a mortgage on the share they buy and pay rent on the balance, usually to a housing association.

It’s the most affordable way to get or stay on the housing ladder if you don’t earn enough or have sufficient savings to buy on the open market.

Both the mortgage and deposit are much smaller: the deposit’s typically five or 10 per cent of the share you’re buying, and the rent’s subsidised.

Can you share details on your mortgage (rate/term)?

With the help of the mortgage broker (Censeo Financial), I looked at the best rates available at the time and considered the advantages of longer and shorter fixed rates, as well as different deposit amounts.

In the end, I chose to increase my intended deposit amount to 15% total value to reduce the rates and fix for 3 years at 4.79% (total term 25 years) with the hope of re-mortgaging at a reduced rate after that initial period.

This mortgage also allowed you to overpay by 10% each year without penalty, which was a big factor in choosing, as paying the minimum sum for the first few years would largely only pay off the interest rather than add to your equity.

Where did you live before this – were you renting or living with family?

I lived less than 10 minutes away, also in Catford, and rented a room in a shared house.

What made you want to buy rather than rent?

I have always wanted to. I don’t mind the responsibility of owning as it puts you more in control of your living situation, and the way rent has been going up in the last few years, it’s only become more attractive.

How did you find this property? What made you choose it?

I had seen the property many months ago when I was looking to get an idea of affordability. It was a really good price, next to the stations and had two bedrooms, so it made sense on paper.

It later reappeared on the Share to Buy website, and I wondered what had happened, so I booked a viewing. It was in good condition and had a really nice layout, with, as it turned out, a very motivated seller.

I found out that the previous sale had fallen through as the last buyer sadly lost their job. Everything fell into place and it was the first and last property I viewed. I approached the housing association, Peabody, the same day to start the process of buying the property.

How have you made the property feel like home? What’s the inspiration for your interior decor style?

I was also lucky in that I had a good amount of annual leave coming up at the time of the purchase, so I’ve been able to re-decorate the majority of the rooms, replace the light fixtures and make small changes fairly quickly. That gave the property the freshen up that I wanted.

I kept the wall colours neutral so that I could break out the colour with furniture and soft furnishings, but that did include a green hallway and an almost black bedroom.

What’s your favourite room and why?

I really like the living room/kitchen as with some adjustable furniture, it can be a party or exercise space. And it’s the biggest change from living in a shared house, as I now feel I can have friends over without worrying if someone else will need the space.

Do you feel like you have enough space?

More than enough. You get used to living in small spaces when renting in London so it’s been quite odd having to walk somewhere to get something.

Do you have plans to change the property?

I’ll probably replace some of the appliances in the next few months, but it’s now more about the gradual addition of pictures and personal items that will come in time.

Are there any problems with the property that you have to deal with?

There was an odd smell that we really struggled to find the source for as we acclimatised to it very quickly. This turned out to be caused by the ventilation system which I’ve still to get looked at.

Luckily, we can use it judiciously, so the smell isn’t a problem. The integrated toilet cistern is also heavily calcified so that will likely need to be replaced soon.