Do you have any positive experiences from a "Shared Ownership" property?

I bought a shared ownership property 7 years ago and recently purchased the remaining share.  For me, despite some negatives, it allowed me to build up equity it the first half, and for me, it was a better option than renting (partly because my view is that renting is ‘dead money’). So some negatives- we had an issue with someone stealing our parcels- it was going on for years and tbh I’m not sure I trust parcels coming here even now, however, after one of my parcels went missing, I complained hard to Evri, and my parcel appeared at my flat door within a few days, so actually I believe the Evri deliverer was taking photos of the parcels in the building and then leaving with them. There are people that make mess in the communal areas and expect our block cleaners/ someone else to clean it up, and there are some weed smokers in the building. That said, I have heard that this is Flat buildings in general. Because my building is 50% shared ownership and 50% housing association (HA is not the same as council, the majority of the people living here do work), things like our service charge and kept low (ie affordable housing). We are one building within a few that are not HA/ SO and get to enjoy the communal gardens etc (that we do contribute towards as part of our service charge). The positives - The location, the size (I got a 2 bed apt), being able to build up equity on my 50% share whilst having cheaper rent on the other 50%, a lower service charge vs similar priced apartments. This is your home; you can redecorate as you wish (unlike renting). For me, the option was either continue renting or buy SO, so buying SO was the better of the two options. When looking to get a mortgage for this flat, Nationwide took it as I’m only getting a 40% loan to value of the home (rather than 80% of a 50% share), so my rate was much lower). When looking to buy the remaining share, I actually looked at the “dead money” aspect of each option, so for SO that’s the interest on my mortgage and the rent, for buying it outright it’s just the interest on my mortgage. On buying the full amount, my interest alone is more than the rent and interest I was paying when it was SO so in actual fact you’re wasting less money as SO, however, I justified it to myself as saying “well it maybe cheaper to buy the second half now rather than 3 years time” and very simply, I want to be on course to owning the whole flat rather than 50% of it. Negatives When staircasing you have to pay for a surveyor to value it, if selling as shared ownership you also have to have to pay for a surveyor to value it and you can only list it with the SO company for the first 2 months. You also have to pay the SO company an admin fee for either purchasing or selling (they will list all of these so you can see what they are before purchasing). And as much as people may say “people are queuing up for shared ownership properties” that not the case, a lot of people are put off by paying the rent as well as mortgage etc. speak to your solicitor about stamp duty implications too of buying the second share. (I didn’t have to pay it but it was confusing). 

How much of your new monthly outcome will be paying down the mortgage?  Ie if it’s an additional £200 but £300 will be paying down your mortgage, then surely this is better than staying renting and saving the £200?