What is affordable housing?

"An affordable home is for people who cannot afford to buy a home on the open market. It is provided at a discount to the market price, and you must live in it. If you sell it within 20 years, you will have to pay back a percentage of the sale price to the local authority." Source: www.affordablehome.ie

Who qualifies for affordable housing?

An applicant for affordable housing must:

• Be a first-time buyer (but there are some exceptions, for example if you are separated or divorced).
• Have enough income to meet your mortgage repayments after you have paid all your other costs.
• As a guide, earn between €25,000 and €58,000 if you are applying on your own and up to €75,000 between both of you if you are applying with someone else. These are the approximate limits only – lower and higher income limits may apply.

Do we need an affordable housing scheme?

As stated by the Affordable Homes Partnership, the scheme aims to allow people who cannot afford to purchase a home on the open market the opportunity to own a home. Who are these poor unfortunate people who cannot afford a humble home? Is this just a fancy name for social housing? No. The people who are taking up the scheme are the young middle class.

A person earning €58,000 per annum should not need government help to buy a home.

Why are more and more properties becoming available on the AH scheme?

Many people are being contacted by the AHP unexpectedly, as can be seen on www.AskAboutMoney.com, www.ThePropertyPin.com and www.Neighbours.ie. This could mean any number of things. More property is being bought by the AHP? More people are turning down AHP homes that are offered to them? Developers are turning to the AHP to offload property that is not selling?

Nobody knows, but if there is one verifiable fact in Ireland at present, it's that there are plenty of unsold properties available, and plenty of developers desperate to sell them.

The AH scheme should be scaled back at this time, because the market is naturally coming down to meet the reality of what people can afford.