Letter in Indo re Affordable Housing sham

C

Clown

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LIKE many first-time buyers these days, my only realistic option of pursuing home ownership is through the Affordable Housing scheme that is administered by the local authorities.
The aim of Affordable Housing states: "An affordable home is a home that you buy at a discount to the market price."

With this in mind, may I ask the question why South Dublin County Council is offering "affordable" housing that is virtually equivalent to the current market rate?

A two-bedroom apartment in Priorsgate development in Tallaght is being offered by Hooke and MacDonald for between €275,000 and €310,000.

South Dublin County Council on the other hand is offering two bedroom apartments in this very same development for between €273,000 and €305,000.

The prices are almost identical, but the restrictions with South Dublin County Council must also be taken into account.

If you sell the property within 20 years, the council may "claw back" a percentage of the selling price.

Also, the property must remain your principal residence -- that means you are forbidden to rent it out.

Clearly, the Affordable Housing scheme is not carrying out its remit.

ROBERT MOLLOY

GALWAY CITY
 
Clown said:
Clearly, the Affordable Housing scheme is not carrying out its remit.
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:eek:
But wait a minute, isn't this like the old "first time buyers" grant that only applied to new builds & not second hand houses?
 
Here, here!!!

That's a great letter. I had written to the Irish Times myself but the letter was never published. I'm delighted to see others go to the media.

The situation in Priorsgate is a joke. I'm sure that they are not even getting the asking price on private sales. We should flood the Indo with more letters so that it will become a bigger issue.

What are SDCC playing at? I'm glad that I turned down Priorsgate last year. Thankfully DRCC seem to be listening to complaints a bit more.
 
SDCC are overvaluing everything and then if you refuse to pay these outrageous prices they put you to the bottom of the list. It is the same with Citywest Plaza. SDCC are claiming they are valued at €280,000 and Savills are selling them for €255,000.
 
It's really awful that people who have been on the list for some time are shoved to the bottom because they won't accept those prices.

I would encourage people to fight the council on it. They should be offered something else instead. People should ask for the help of their local councillors, it's a very legitimate problem, not as if they would be just calling in a favour.

I have met a brick wall with other councils, persevered and eventually got things changed.
 
I have met a brick wall with other councils, persevered and eventually got things changed.
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Hi Cheeus,

When you say you perservered and got things changed, what did you do exactly? I am in the middle of 'perservering' at the moment (I don't want to go into detail here - easily identifiable i think!) but would appreciate if you could let me know what happened, or PM me.

Thanks.
 
i got offered one in priorsgate a few months back but when he told me the price i was like WTF??? told him that i couldn't even get a mortgage for 300k and if i could then i wouldn't be going through the affordable housing route! he said that because i couldn't actually get that amount for a mortgage, then he wouldn't put me bottom of the list and would leave me where i was!!
 
Surely "affordable housing" doesn't necessarily mean "discounted below prevailing market value of similar properties".
 
I think people are crazy to go for an affordable house at the moment. They are still way overvalued and the market value is almost on a par with the affordable price. If everyone rejected the current offers from the various councils then prices would have to drop!!

On another note it is looking increasingly likely that the government will introduce new measures to help first time buyers. I think this is just a way for the government to keep prices artificially high and ensure that they get more tax revenue from property sales. The government are out to rescue the developers like they have done with the banks. And the young first time buyers are the ones who will have to suffer.
 
ClubMan said:
Surely "affordable housing" doesn't necessarily mean "discounted below prevailing market value of similar properties".
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It is if you read any of the documentation or material on the Affordable Housing website. Indeed, the council claim that they are offering a discount of roughly €60,000 on this development. The problem is that the Priorsgate developers dropped their prices and they're now at Affordable Housing levels. This has effectively wiped out the discount that the property was formerly given.
 
ClubMan said:
Surely "affordable housing" doesn't necessarily mean "discounted below prevailing market value of similar properties".
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I'm afraid the Affordable Housing threads must have been the only ones that you haven't followed closely in the last year or so.

Affordable Housing is now a complete shambles. Councils agreed to values upon the AH units at the height of the boom with, at best, no regards to their true value. Quite what the motivation of individuals or entire Councils was is open to debate, but suffice it to say that the true value was substantially lower and that buyers cannot now get mortgages from the banks as either the bank, the council or the individual would be exposed.

1. Council and Builders agree to a price on an Apt (say 400K). Builder gets 300K and Council "owns" 100K.

2. Apt offered to buyers for 300K with a discount of 25% which the Council owns for period of time (typically 10 years), diminishing over that time.

3. Buyer goes to bank to get mortgage. Bank values the property at 250K, not 400K.

4. Buyer has to find the extra money, or if the valuation is greater than 300K but less than 400K, has to buy the property knowing they will never be able to sell the property at a profit until it's value goes above 400K. The Council now "owns" a notional value on the property which it will never see.

The logical consequences of this scheme was quite clear from a very early stage.

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=36615
 
Raskolnikov said:
It is if you read any of the documentation or material on the Affordable Housing website. Indeed, the council claim that they are offering a discount of roughly €60,000 on this development. The problem is that the Priorsgate developers dropped their prices and they're now at Affordable Housing levels. This has effectively wiped out the discount that the property was formerly given.
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Fair enough - thanks for the info.

Howitzer said:
I'm afraid the Affordable Housing threads must have been the only ones that you haven't followed closely in the last year or so.
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Not the only ones!
 
Hi

i had heard that the council bought the apartments in priorsgate for the sum they are selling them... they signed the papers and it all went through...then there was a delay and the property market went belly up.. the council are then basically stuck with the property which they paid 300K for
 
Actionmags said:
Hi

i had heard that the council bought the apartments in priorsgate for the sum they are selling them... they signed the papers and it all went through...then there was a delay and the property market went belly up.. the council are then basically stuck with the property which they paid 300K for
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So they should pass on their loss to the unfortunate first time buyer? Questions should be asked as to the prices being paid to developers as whoevers valuation is being used is way out of sync with reality
 
westapt said:
Hi Cheeus,

When you say you perservered and got things changed, what did you do exactly? I am in the middle of 'perservering' at the moment (I don't want to go into detail here - easily identifiable i think!) but would appreciate if you could let me know what happened, or PM me.

Thanks.
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Have sent you a pm.
 
Howitzer said:
1. Council and Builders agree to a price on an Apt (say 400K). Builder gets 300K and Council "owns" 100K.

How does this work, does the council pay the 100K at the same time as the buyer pays the 300K with his mortgage?

2. Apt offered to buyers for 300K with a discount of 25% which the Council owns for period of time (typically 10 years), diminishing over that time.

Is the council's name on the deeds, what happens after 10 years they take their name off the deeds?
What if the buyer defaulted on the mortgage and disappeared, would the bank own the property together with the council?
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