Social Housing within new development

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MandaC

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I am considering buying in a new development in Kildare. There is to be an element of social housing in the development, and the builder is being very vague as to how many, what percentage and where they are due to be located within the development. I had read that there could be up to 20% in a new development, but I am finding it very difficult to get a straight answer, as it seems to differ each time I speak to someone else from the builders office.

Does anyone know if it is possible to check with the County Council to verify the position?

Many thanks


MandaC
 
Yes, the county council will also give you the 'mix' of social and affordable housing in % and may show on a map where they are .

The builder may be trying to buy his 20% quota elsewhere too which could explain the vagueness, he could buy 20% of another estate and fill his quota that way meaning you have no social or affordables in your estate at all.
 
What are the councils doing with the donations? Do they build themselves, pocket the money or what?:confused:
 
It just gets squandered and wasted like the rest of the money collected.
 
It looks like there will definitely be no opt out in this case. I am going to call to Kildare Council offices next week when I am off work to see if I can see plans for the area.

Many thanks


MandaC
 
Is social housing the same as affordable housing? Does the presence of affordable housing in a development affect the other properties (in terms of re-sale value etc)? Thanks for any info.
 
Just to clarify...

Social Housing is accommodation provided to those on Social Welfare. People who are not working and who will 'rent' the property off the council, usually at very low rates.

Affordable Housing is where the Council provides half the mortgage for people on low wages who cannot 'afford' a new home. Certain T&C's are tied in (especially re selling the property in the first few years).
 
There's a few affordable houses in our estate - 6 I believe and I don't see any problem with it. In fact I should have probably applied myself as I would have fallen under the income threshold at the time. No one know which individual houses they are. It's better to have social and affordable housing integrated into standard estates. Otherwise you get pockets of undesirable housing estates which is not good for any community - no matter which estate you live in.

Removing the opt out clause was a mistake as the local authorities don't seem to be using the money to build homes.
 
ButtermilkJa said:
Just to clarify...

Social Housing is accommodation provided to those on Social Welfare. People who are not working and who will 'rent' the property off the council, usually at very low rates.

Affordable Housing is where the Council provides half the mortgage for people on low wages who cannot 'afford' a new home. Certain T&C's are tied in (especially re selling the property in the first few years).
Click to expand...

Correct however people earning up to E55k can now qualify for Affordable Housing simply because you can be earning a good wage these days and still not be able to get on the ladder at market prices. So it's not necessarily 'low earners' who would be living there. There's no signficant distinction to be made about Affordable Housing people, as you could have other people in the estate actually on the same wages but who could afford a normal mortgage because of trading up/parents/buying together etc.
If anything it means that those houses would be owner occupied not rented out which is usually considered to be a good thing.
 
Social housing is allocated to those on the local authority housing list in order of priority based on a points system. These are people in need of housing and not necessarily people who are not working. Many people on the housing list are in work but are not in a position to purchase a suitable house for themselves for any number of reasons. The rents paid by local authority tenants are usually below market rent but are not nominal.

There is no reason to be afraid of Social or Affordable housing in your estate. Everyone has experience of both good and bad neighbours; they come in rich, poor and middling varieties.
 
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