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House buying co-op

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  • 24-05-2013 1:58pm
    #1
    Shedite27
    Registered Users Posts: 9,396 ✭✭✭


    Trying to tease out an idea here...

    I'm a 29year old, looking for the infamous "nice family home" in certain areas of Dublin. All the open houses I've been looking at are packed with similar people to myself (or budget is about €420k at present, for 3/4 bed semi-d).

    So, suppose I find 4-10 other families like myself who are at the same open houses. There's not enough suitable houses in that area, so we form a coop.

    Together, we look for a site, whatever, 5 or 6 acres. From there we pool your resources, hire a solicitor, architect, builder, get the houses built. Each to their own to fit out to whatever standard and specs they like.

    The idea would be that you'd likely recieve discounts from dealing with builders in bulk, and be able to negotiate a bulk deal. All figures would be open an disclosed, nobody making a profit, just hopefully at the end of it, a house you have customised at a price better than you would have got on the open market, eliminating estate agents, property developers etc.

    Anybody know if anything like this was tried before? The main pitfall I could see would be the mortgages, they would be very messy. Anyone else see any(many) problems with this type of idea?


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    #2
    stevedublin
    Registered Users Posts: 979 ✭✭✭stevedublin


    Its been done before in this country, I bought an apartment built by a housing co-op, but wasnt much involved otherwise.


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    #3
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 5,121 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    It sounds a bit like the original building societies.

    I'm sure it can be done but I imagine it would take quite a bit of legal advice upfront.


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    #4
    Kosseegan
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 987 ✭✭✭Kosseegan


    Shedite27 wrote: »
    Trying to tease out an idea here...

    I'm a 29year old, looking for the infamous "nice family home" in certain areas of Dublin. All the open houses I've been looking at are packed with similar people to myself (or budget is about €420k at present, for 3/4 bed semi-d).

    So, suppose I find 4-10 other families like myself who are at the same open houses. There's not enough suitable houses in that area, so we form a coop.

    Together, we look for a site, whatever, 5 or 6 acres. From there we pool your resources, hire a solicitor, architect, builder, get the houses built. Each to their own to fit out to whatever standard and specs they like.

    The idea would be that you'd likely recieve discounts from dealing with builders in bulk, and be able to negotiate a bulk deal. All figures would be open an disclosed, nobody making a profit, just hopefully at the end of it, a house you have customised at a price better than you would have got on the open market, eliminating estate agents, property developers etc.

    Anybody know if anything like this was tried before? The main pitfall I could see would be the mortgages, they would be very messy. Anyone else see any(many) problems with this type of idea?
    It certainly has been done. It is not easy find a site and since the people involved are amateurs delays are inevitable as is the possibility of being left high and dry by builders. There was one involving are lingus employees a few years ago which turned into a fiasco. Another one in dun laoghaire worked well but took years longer than anticipated.


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