Homeowners

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Dordogne Holiday Home - Holiday home with own pool in the Dordogne, south-west France. Sleeps 8.

Homeowners- The rate of home ownership does vary from country to country by quite considerable margins, even within the industrialised nations. England & Wales are high on the list with over 22 million homes with approx 2 thirds of them owner occupied. Slightly less than a third of all homes are in the rented sector, these can either be social housing provided by local authorities or housing associations or increasingly, property that is owned by private landlords who have purchased property on a buy to let basis. In is estimated that over 10% of the housing stock is now owned by private landlords. Many landlords are ordinary home owners that have financed the purchase of the rental property by partly using the equity in their homes. In the United Kingdom, the most popular way to purchase a property is by means of a mortgage.

Most homeowners arrange a mortgage via a bank or building society and a typical period for the redemption, is 25 years. There are a large number of mortgages with different incentives and interest rates and they are available from a variety of sources. Although the actual ownership of the home does not become that of the home owner until, the mortgage has been paid in full ( it is usually for the mortgage lender to hold on to the deeds until such time as the mortgage has been paid), the homeowner does find himself responsible for the up keep of the property and for arranging a buildings insurance policy to protect it against a wide range of perils. Some lenders will insist on arranging the home insurance themselves although in recent years, many have allowed home owners to make there own arrangements. If you are allowed to arrange your own policy, you will have to make sure that the lenders interest is noted and that the policy you purchase satisfies the council for mortgage lenders hand book conditions.

In England & Wales, most home owners purchase their property on a freehold basis, that is to say , they actually also own the land on which the property stands, the ownership is in perpetuity or until such time as the freehold is sold on. Most homeowners who have purchased a flat have done so on a leasehold basis. A lease will give the holder the right to occupy their flat for a limited amount of time ( ninety nine years is fairly typical) At the end of this time, the ownership of the flat passes back to the freeholder. Many blocks of flats are now seeing all the leaseholders grouping together under the right to enfranchisement and actually buying the freehold of the property.