East Cork AH - can we qualify?

Hi there,

New to this forum and just looking for some advise.

we've just decided to move from Dublin back to East Cork. We'll never be able to afford to buy in Dublin, it's not worth staying there, blah blah.

Anyway, I'm a stay at home mother and my partner only earns €25000 in his current job. Now he might be able to earn more if he moves job, they're sending him to college so feel justified in paying him less.

Would I be right in saying that because he earns so little we more than likely won't qualify? I could go back to work but because I didn't earn much before I had my daughter I wouldn't be making too much of a difference to our income.

We currently rent a one bed for €850 a month and can show we can save/pay rent but don't have any savings to pay for a deposit.

Also, if you get offered an affordable house, do the council choose it and then you have the option of accepting or denying it? But if you do shared ownership, you choose the house and then they decide if they want to approve it.Is this correct? And would I be as well off applying for both and just hoping for the best? AFAIK there are some AH houses empty around the area where I want to be... Well there was a while ago...

Any advise would be great. I'm totally new to the system but I WANT A HOUSE!!! I want to paint the walls, hang pictures, have a permanent address, a place to call my own! Sob!

Thanks in advance!

Well you'd definately qualify as far as i know. The problem might be the bank giving a mortgage, i'm not too sure really to be honest! I'm new to the whole thing myself.

What area in East Cork would you be looking at? There seems to be a fair bit of development around Midleton so i suppose places will become availible there

You definitely qualify, BUT Councils are having big problems with the scheme at the moment as the banks aren't giving out mortgages to those who qualify.

You should also look at putting your name down for social housing.

Is social housing the same as council housing?

I'd be looking at the Midleton area, where I'm from. I suppose I'd better get my name down asap...

DO banks not want to give out mortgages to people who will be getting affordable housing? Or just to people who earn a small amount?

If we did move down before we applied for a mortgage I could get a job and we could rent, making us a bit more favourable for a mortgage I suppose. There's no point in me getting a job here as I'd be paying out exactely what I earn in childcare... Better start looking into moving then!

Any more advice would be great!

hey,
just to let you know im from the midleton area to and my aunt whos married and has four kids applied for one of these houses and was told because her husband earns more than 180 euros a week thenthey wont qualify.... at the moment shes in a three bed house and one of her children has a disability.....
she pays 140euros a week for a council house at the mo

So she wouldn't qualify for social (council) housing because of his earnings, or did she not qualify for affordable/shared ownership housing?

Yes, social housing is the old council housing. But almost all new large developments are mixed developments, so there is not the same stigma as there once was about living in a council estate.

There is a surplus of affordable houses as they are given out to people who qualify for them, but banks will not give out mortgages to low earners in the way they used to 12 months ago.

Your best bet is to apply for both affordable and social housing, but you will not be able to do so with a Dublin address.

yes she went and enquired and was told that her husband earned to much if you could believe that.......
aperantly because he earned over that amount the six of them wern't entitled to any help at all. my aunt cant work because of her childs disability he needs constant care and its only recently that the state has recognised his disabiliy and thats after 6 years of her trying to get it recognised.....
there is a new crowd ill get the name but they come out and access your suitation, and they distrabute the houses on needs basis and not earnings

I could use my parents address, if we moved down and rented it would probably be the same address anyway (they live in the country so it's a townland as opposed to a street).

Before I gave up work we could get a mortgage of about 215000 between the two of us so if he had to get a mortgage on his own I don't know how much he'd get but hopefully if it was a 60/40 split and he had to get 60%, which would prob be about €145000, he might be able to do it, with some sweet talking!

Any word on anything happening in East Cork?

sounds to me like all county councils have different qualifying citeria. In South Tipp when we applied we were def earning more than 25,000 combine. Phone the appropiate co council and see.