Question on Shared Ownership

Hi

I have read some literature on Shared ownership and it is my understanding that effectively the council buys the house and your payment to them is partially in the form of a mortgage and partially as rent (for the part the council owns) at a rate of 4.85% percent.

My question is what mortgage interest rate does the council use when calculating your mortgage payment? Is it ECB + a certain percentage?? Would it typically be more favourable or worse than rates offered by commercial banks?

bump

I got keys to new house on Nov 20th 09. This was through Shared Ownership with the DCC and it was 2.25%. Anymore questions fire away.

Simon

The mortgage interest rate is determined centrally by the Housing Finance Agency and as the above post says, is currently 2.25%.

The rate is variable but nearly always goes up and down along with the ECB rate (although there is usually a delay between the ECB rate change and the local authority change, due to the HFA having to meet to decide whether to pass on the ECB change). An exception was that the most recent ECB cut was not passed on.