Our Young Mouse is only 25, but is far better with money than his slightly feckless dad. He announced a few months ago that he’d saved up enough money to leave the family nest and buy his own flat in west London. ‘It’s shared ownership,’ he said. ‘You buy a quarter of it and rent the rest.’ I sounded a note of fatherly caution. ‘Isn’t that where you get those horrible service charges?’ I asked. I’d read an article about the huge costs of shared-ownership schemes. ‘And who is running this scheme?’ I asked. ‘Something called Peabody,’ he replied. At the mention of Peabody, concerns evaporated. George Peabody (1795-1869) was the philanthropic American banker who founded the Peabody Trust, a prime example of Victorian social housing that really worked. We consulted Granny Mouse and Grandfather Mouse. They both have some expertise in property. Grandfather Mouse was a protégé of Harold...
I’m afraid this isn’t one of our four free articles available in full, which are set out in the first two rows of the ‘Magazine’ page.
Please click here to find them.
To buy a digital version of this issue for just £2.99, click here
