Joint Mortgage / Housing Co-op in Wicklow

batyushki

I'm a professional living in north Wicklow and looking for other like-minded people interested in joint purchase of a country house. My idea is a joint mortgage involving 2-3 families, where we could purchase a large house with land, sub-divide and remodel the house into 2-3 units.

An example: as a family, we could purchase a house for 300-400k with a tiny garden. Just by finding another family with similar purchasing power, we could go in for a house of 600-800k that, when subdivided, would still be larger than a single home we could purchase, as well as potentially having significant gardens or lands. Three families would result in even more economies of scale that would allow a higher standard of housing than any of the three could achieve on their own.

I am focused on the area around Kilcoole, Newcastle, Newtownmountkennedy, Roundwood.

Would love to hear from anyone with an interest and ability to participate.

D3PO

where to start

legal complications doing this
issues getting a joint mortgage for such a project
planning issues
debt exposure if one family defaults (assuming inability to remortgage after project is finished)

nice idea but just not sure how viable it is.

batyushki

Certainly nothing that can't be overcome with a good solicitor and forethought. This shouldn't be any more complicated than a business partnership of another kind. I think the key is contingency plans related to one party backing out, wanting to sell, etc, as well as having a solid relationship with the partner(s) before going forward.

Mrs OBumble

batyushki wrote: »

Certainly nothing that can't be overcome with a good solicitor and forethought. This shouldn't be any more complicated than a business partnership of another kind. I think the key is contingency plans related to one party backing out, wanting to sell, etc, as well as having a solid relationship with the partner(s) before going forward.

I agree.

But still I'd be a bit nervous about hoping to form a solid relationship if you're looking for someone on the internet.

Even with the best will in the world, things could get difficult if you discover a fundamental values clash with your partner some years down the track. (eg one of your kids works out they're gay, and the building-partners discover some fundamentalist Christian beliefs about sexuality that were never evident before.)

Good luck with your search.

D3PO

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I agree.

But still I'd be a bit nervous about hoping to form a solid relationship if you're looking for someone on the internet.


Good luck with your search.

This is precisely my point. Its one thing doing this with a group of people you know with likeminded ideas. Trying to get a group of strangers together leaves just to big a risk.

D3PO

batyushki wrote: »

This shouldn't be any more complicated than a business partnership of another kind.

Yes but would you go into business with somebody you hardly knew and met over the internet ? I think its fair to say most people wouldnt.

Victor

I think such a project would be much better suited to either one family (although do you really want to live next to the mother in law?) or a sole property developer.

batyushki wrote: »

I'm a professional living in north Wicklow and looking for other like-minded people interested in joint purchase of a country house.

Joint purchases are not unheard of. However, it is usual that the property is sub-divided already or is readily dividable, e.g. a farm - party X gets one set of fields while party Y gets another set.

My idea is a joint mortgage involving 2-3 families, where we could purchase a large house with land, sub-divide and remodel the house into 2-3 units.

However, this suggestion reeks of madness. You are exposed to huge risks, especially fraud or a falling out. You will need planning permission to subdivide the property. The banks likely won't like it.

Three families would result in even more economies of scale that would allow a higher standard of housing than any of the three could achieve on their own.

But potentially there would be large additional costs also, that wouldn't arise in normal transactions - potentially fancy legal work, sub-division costs (building and site), new site entrances, new wiring & plumbing, new utility connections, fire safety work, new doors ...

batyushki wrote: »

Certainly nothing that can't be overcome with a good solicitor and forethought.

Each party should have their own solicitor, not a shared one. You should bring your own solicitor (with conveyancing / development skills) to the deal, not rely on someone else's solicitor.

Plopli

There were some projects like that I've heard of in Belgium/France.
I cannot find a link or pointer now.

They did go even further with part of the habitation shared (like a common inside kid's playroom and such).

Even with people you know well, it's very difficult to know how it will pan out after multiple years.

I would be interested if I hadn't bought a house last year ...

I would really expect it to take some time if you start with no prior knowledge of the partners. You would at least need to build some trust in addition to the legal stuff.

cocoa123

Hi Batyshki, just wondering whet have you got so far with your housing coop project. We are currently considering a similar idea but in a different county. Keen to find out what came out of your co-housing project.

by the seaside

Reasonably common here in the UK and you can get specialist mortgages - have a look at this for a UK perspective and you may find someone who understands the situation in Ireland. http://www.cch.coop/cch/about.html Might be easier with cash buyers.

My friends in Sheffield live next door to a coop - three terraced houses, now interconnected, but they live a bit of an alternative communal lifestyle. Lovely people and neighbours.

I would be up for doing this in North Wicklow but Mrs by the seaside wouldn't be interested.

Edit: one of the things I find attractive about this is that we've got two young-sih kids and no local family support network. While I wouldn't be on for a full communal living experience, I can see some benefits in terms of sharing drop-off and pick-up from school, feeding each other pets when someone's on holiday. Perhaps even having a communal meal once a month. Some people even get efficiencies in car ownership - if you typically need one car per famil but sometimes two, it's hard to own 1.5 cars. But you can have one or two cars available between a group on top of one privately owned care per family. It depends how far you want to take it. You could simply split the property.

batyushki

cocoa123: I didn't get any specific replies in my area, but there are other folks looking for similar things in Ireland on Facebook. Search for Irish Land Co-Operatives, and Landshare Ireland on Facebook.

aaronoscar

Hi everyone,

If you're still interested in co-housing or setting up a similar project there's an event coming up in Cloughjordan Ecovillage this month that may be of interest.

It's on Thursday 29th October and will bring together experts on housing development, building and residents from co-housing projects in the UK and will focus on the potential of housing ourselves co-operatively, shared facilities among separate living spaces and explore the potential barriers to co-housing projects.

I'd love to be able to give you all the info but cannot post links etc. as I'm still a new user.

If you're interested you can check out cultivate.ie and see all the info under Convergence - the sustainable living festival.

Or if you wanted to drop me an email on aaron[at symbol]cultivate.ie I can send you on all the details.

Hope this is relevant and of interest to some of you.
Cheers, aaron