If you are buying an affordable home, because it is all that you can get, with the plan of selling it in a few years, read this.

The AHP offers 1 bed apartments. The first step on the property ladder for a young couple. They may enjoy living in close proximity for a few years, but sooner or later they want to start a family.

Maybe they can extend to cater for the new arrivals. Their planning application to build 2 more bedrooms off the balcony is turned down on many grounds.

With the option of extending gone, their options are very limited. They decide its time to put their equity to work and "trade up" to a bigger property and start a family. However, surprisingly, they have not waited 20 years to trade up. They have been in their 1 bed for only two or three years. If by some miracle, they are not in negative equity, they can forget about using all that equity they have built up, because due to the clawback clause, it's not theirs, it's the AHP's !.

So they have been paying a mortgage for 2-3 years and have managed to sell their apartment for €20k more than they originally paid, but they don't get to keep a cent of that €20k. In addition to that, they now have to fork out stamp duty for their next home, having used their valuable First Time Buyer stamp duty exemption on a starter home that they were never going to stay in for long. The fact of the matter is they paid off a mortgage for 2-3 years for nothing. They lost their FTB exemption for nothing. They took the risk of negative equity for nothing.

They would have been better off renting.

The AHP is providing starter homes under terms suited for long term living.