When Nick and Tanya Dobbin were given notice that the home they rented on the private market was to be sold, the couple had to act fast.
“It left us in a situation where we had to find something pretty quickly and also with a consideration towards putting down roots for the long term,” said Nick, 43.
Despite hearing of shared ownership, the couple had never considered it as an option.
However after looking on the Help to Buy website for the area they wanted to stay in there was only one development that was going to be ready in time for them, which was with Domovo.
The two-bed end terrace house sits within the large development Longford Park in Banbury, on the edge of North Oxfordshire. As well as being light and airy inside, they have a good sized garden to enjoy with daughter Jasmine, aged six.
Nick, a hydraulic engineer at a small local company, said the process was not as easy as hoped to begin with.
“The buying process was great but we nearly fell foul of a Mortgage advisor who didn’t really know the Shared ownership market and gave us some poor advice.
“Nathan at Domovo was great and advised us to try another Mortgage Advisor that they had used before and he really came through for us. My advice is definitely find an advisor that knows the shared ownership market.”
As for the benefits of moving with Domovo, Nick said: “The main way the purchase has benefited us is that we have now staircased and purchased 100 per cent of the property and before the move we never really dreamed of owning a property”. Staircasing is the process of purchasing further shares in your Shared Ownership property.
“We rented on the private market for years and were always quite happy with the transient nature of it, giving us flexibility to move where and whenever we wanted to. But after having our little girl we decided it was now important to stay in one place.”
Find out more about Nick’s story by watching our video below.
