Shared ownership: Reading

Having first met in Bristol, Hannah Tomaselli, 27, and Dillon Hamill, 25, moved to Reading two years ago for Hannah’s new job in the emergency services. Renting in Caversham, a suburb of Reading, offered the couple some of the things that they wanted for their life together – a welcoming local area close to the river and within easy access of Reading centre. However, they were eager to set down more permanent roots and take a step on to the property ladder in the city they had come to call home

Hannah explains, “Moving to Reading had been an exciting step for us, but renting was not how we envisaged our future. It felt like we were throwing money away. I had always wanted to buy in order to have more stability, so we wouldn’t have to move with a month’s notice and would have the opportunity to properly decorate.”

When it came to property hunting in Reading, the couple used Zoopla to search for homes in their chosen areas. As Dillon explains, “We didn’t want to settle with any old property, so we were quite particular about which areas of Reading we looked in, but we found that lots of properties on the open market were out of our budget. That was until we started seeing adverts for new developments that offered homes through shared ownership, which we were aware of, but hadn’t properly considered as an option.”

Doing more research into shared ownership, Hannah and Dillon learnt that they would be able to purchase a percentage share of a property, with a lower deposit than they had initially imagined. They quickly discovered L&Q at Huntley Wharf, a brand new development in the heart of Reading, which ticked lots of their priorities.

As Hannah recalls, “L&Q at Huntley Wharf was immediately appealing to us, as it was a modern development right in the centre of Reading, close to the station for Dillon to get to work in Bath, and a short walk to my work in the town centre. Plus, it was right on the river, within walking distance of the shops and with lots of nearby green spaces.”

Dillon adds, “I think we were both expecting our property hunt to take longer, so when we went to the open day at L&Q at Huntley Wharf we weren’t expecting to actually find a home – and yet, we ended up reserving on the day!”

Hannah and Dillon purchased a 25% share of a two bedroom shared ownership apartment with a full market value of £350,000. Speaking about their new home, Hannah says, “While at the open event, one of the sales team was able to show us the actual apartment that we went on to reserve. We loved the show flat, but actually seeing our future home was a whole other story – it had a lovely open-plan living space, with large windows and I could picture where we would put our furniture.

“Even though the apartment is slightly smaller than where we were previously renting, it doesn’t feel it – it’s been wellthought-out with plenty of storage.”

Dillon said, “The apartment has been perfect on the days I work from home. We have enough space for me to have an office, with a big window that our cat loves to look out of. Plus, we have communal gardens

Fact File

Property: Two bedroom apartment

Share value: £87,500 for a 25% share

Full market value: £350,000

Deposit: £4,300

Monthly mortgage: £370

Service charge: £187 Rent: £590

Total monthly outgoings: £1,147 on-site that we can use. For weekends, the location of our new home is ideal. We are less than a 15-minute walk to the town centre, meaning we can go out for food and drinks at all the different places near the Oracle Shopping Centre and don’t have to worry about getting home. Plus, we’ll soon have the Riverside Square which will mean we’ll have a cafe and shop right on the doorstep. We are also just an 11-minute walk from the station and with the new Elizabeth Line it only takes 25 minutes to get into London Paddington.”

With the opportunity to decorate, Hannah has enjoyed making the apartment their own. She says. “We’ve gone for really cosy colours which break up the clean white surfaces throughout the apartment – dark teal in the office and dark purple in our bedroom. It’s been really nice making it more homely and personal, something we never had the freedom to do while renting. Our apartment at L&Q at Huntley Wharf really feels like home already.”