COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

MOTION NO. 16

MOTION: Councillor C. Keane

"That this Committee discusses with the aid of an up to date report & recommendations for the affordable housing units awaiting disposal."

REPORT:

Property Path currently  has 25 unsold properties on hand, of which 3 are owned by the Council with 22 available under the Direct Sales process. There are a further 13 homes with booking deposits placed and at various stages of purchase and contract. Sales on 9 affordable homes have closed in 2010 up to the end of April 2010.

In accordance with Department circular letter AHS 1/09 ‘Measures to Deal with Unsold Affordable Homes and Related Issues’ and the Social Housing Leasing Initiative, South Dublin County Council leased 97 homes to Social Housing applicants in late 2009, with a further 5 leased in 2010. Under this scheme the person leasing the affordable home has the option to purchase the home. A further 31 properties have been approved by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government for funding and are currently in the process of being leased.

The terms of the circular provided a means of providing for social housing need and to eliminate some financial constraints on the Council’s finances.

The Circular mainly provided for:

(1)   Effective action to achieve early sale of units to eligible affordable home purchasers, with particular emphasis on pursuing a broadly-based and efficient approach to marketing and sales supported by availability of local authority loans to fund affordable home purchases. To assist in this, the limit for local authority loans is being increased to €220,000.

(2)   Alternative measures to deal with units which, it has been satisfactorily established, are not likely to sell to affordable purchasers in current market conditions.

 

A Report circulated to the October 2009 meeting of South Dublin County Council was approved by the Members and approved an Agreement between Helm Housing Association for the management and maintenance of 103 Council owned unsold affordable homes.

Regarding the current stock of 25 unsold affordable homes The Property Path, South Dublin County Council’s Affordable Housing Section is continuing to advertise and promote the properties by way of website updates, emails and text messaging to all our affordable applicants. Viewings are arranged at the developments with either SDCC housing staff or the developer in the respective scheme. There are still 2019 approved applicants on the Affordable Housing List, as at 30th April 2010.