Affordable Housing in Cork

M

madisona

Guest
During the last few years Cork City Council has steadfastly refused to implement a government provision which allows local authorities to acquire 20% of housing in new developments for resale as affordable housing. Instead the City Manager and his officials have used an opt out clause in the legislation to give exemptions to developers in exchange for small payments. This policy has saved the developers tens of millions and led to Cork having the largest affordable housing waiting lists in the country.
It has now emerged that a company called "Cork 2005 events" has received millions of euro in donations from the same developers that have benifited from the decision to exempt them for the affordable housing provision. The City Manager who sits on the board of this company has admitted that he has personally approached developers for donations. So how have our elected officials reacted to this clear conflict of interest. During last Mondays Council meeting Cllr Máirín Quill tabled a motion calling for the creation of a "roll of honour" to thank the developers for their selfless donations.
 
Can you see it from the developers point of view?

D
 
This is a Letting Off Steam issue so I have moved it which means that some of the earier contributors will no longer be able to participate until they attain 50 posts and one month of membership first.
 
Is the City manager an elected official??
Corruption is here to stay until the people who whinge and moan about everything, get off their backsides and get out and vote at election time
It suits the government to give handouts to layabouts. As they know once they're kept semi-happy they'll never get out to vote against the government.
Why doesnt the government make it compulsory to Vote??

And the "you'll never change it" and "thats the way its lways been brigade" will have to cop on to help chnage society for the better!
 
madisona said:
and what is the developers point of view?
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the developers point of view is that they want all their houses to sell at the top price in order to make a healthy return on their investment.
If affordable or social housing is part of that site ,they will find it harder to sell the other homes and quite frankly families will be a lot slower to buy there.Me personally I would be worried about the resale value if over the wall was social/affordable housing.
This is just my point of view by the way others Im sure will differ

D
 
I too bought a house in Cork County two years ago in a development of 28 houses. The fact that there was no affordable housing in the development helped my decision to buy as I felt the price paid at the time was only warranted on that basis. Rightly or wrongly I am glad our developer was not obliged to provide affordable housing as I would not have purchased and would have considered a self-build instead. If I was in the situation of requiring affordable housing I am sure my opinions would be different so this is a purely selfish view.
 
I don't understand why people think The Affordable Housing scheme ( I presume that's what's meant?) brings down an area. It just allows people under a certain income to buy at a lower price; they're still holding down a job and paying a mortgage like everyone else.
 

becuase people think it means a council house next door ...
 
Or simply that Mr. X has to buy his house for 270,000. But Mr. & Mrs. Y can buy theirs on the affordable housing scheme for 200,000. Therefore there is an immediate uncertainty about the value of the house.
 
>>becuase people think it means a council house next door ...<<

That's what I mean, it's not in the usual sense of council house.

>>Or simply that Mr. X has to buy his house for 270,000. But Mr. & Mrs. Y can buy theirs on the affordable housing scheme for 200,000. Therefore there is an immediate uncertainty about the value of the house.<<

To who, Mr X? But the Ys house is valued at the market value, the Ys just got a discount on it. This in itself shouldn't affect the original market value of the houses.

I just think that people are saying they wouldn't buy in an estate where there was the Affordable Housing Scheme because they are lumping it in with 'council housing' but it's not the same and they're deluding themselves out of a house they would otherwise buy.
 
People may have all sorts of reasons for not wanting to buy a house in an affordable housing scheme. I said earlier that it helped influence my decision to buy where there was none for the perceived reason as mentioned by vanilla

Or simply that Mr. X has to buy his house for 270,000. But Mr. & Mrs. Y can buy theirs on the affordable housing scheme for 200,000. Therefore there is an immediate uncertainty about the value of the house.
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I have to say I don't really get it. If Ys get a discount on the market value, the market value isn't valid for the other houses? Market value is the market value.
 
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