Affordable housing question

flogen

My Girlfriend and I are currently living abroad (UK) studying and will be back in Dublin this summer.
We are both certain that we want to live together when we get back, and the sooner the better (the idea of living with our parents for any length of time is a drag to say the least). However we are not willing to rent and would rather bite the bullet and save while at home instead of losing money that could be going towards a deposit.

Anyway, it was suggested that we put our names down for affordable housing now and so get the ball rolling sooner rather than later. The thing is, after looking at the criteria, the issue of us not working in Ireland is a problem. I mean, will we need to be working here before we can apply at all or will they make acceptions for students in our situation?

I will try and contact the local authority asap, but I'm just wondering if there's no hope and if we should just wait until the summer, when we're working here again, before we even try and apply?

Thanks

Victor

I think apply with your parents address, it being your normal place of residence but specificly state you are currently in college, in the UK, but will be back in a few months.

How happy are you that you will get work that will pay enough?

flogen

Victor wrote:

I think apply with your parents address, it being your normal place of residence but specificly state you are currently in college, in the UK, but will be back in a few months.

How happy are you that you will get work that will pay enough?

I wouldn't say I'm certain of anything, but I do plan on getting some type of job within a few months of my return, even if it isn't related to my studies, just to pay my way etc.

hmmm

Why are you not willing to rent? Why do you expect the taxpayer to subsidise you buying a house?

flogen

hmmm wrote:

Why are you not willing to rent? Why do you expect the taxpayer to subsidise you buying a house?

Affordable housing is there to help people get onto the property ladder, it will certainly be an option for my girlfriend and I, however it's not the only thing we'll be looking at.

I am not willing to rent because I don't see the point in paying a landlord money every week that I could be saving for my own house. If I'm paying rent (at todays prices) it would take much longer to get the money together to buy.

I already said I'm willing to wait it out and save, if my options are get a house the minute I get home and rent or wait a year and buy, I'll choose the later.

Victor

hmmm wrote:

Why are you not willing to rent? Why do you expect the taxpayer to subsidise you buying a house?

I'm a renter on modest income, why should a rich person get huge tax reductions on their mortgage when I only get a €300 tax credit.

Everyone buying a house gets subsidised. All flogen is trying to do is provide for himself & his. He'll still end up paying a few hundred thousand for his property.

Its a hand up, not a hand out.

krd

Victor wrote:

I'm a renter on modest income, why should a rich person get huge tax reductions on their mortgage when I only get a €300 tax credit.

Everyone buying a house gets subsidised. All flogen is trying to do is provide for himself & his. He'll still end up paying a few hundred thousand for his property.

Its a hand up, not a hand out.

I'm also a renter on a modest income. I refer to my landlord as that big fat parasite with an awful wife.

My house is mostly made of cheap card board (the separating wall with the neighbours is cheap uninsulated plaster board -- you hear everything -- and I mean everything).

If you want a better quality of life stay out of the country if you can.

flogen

krd wrote:

I'm also a renter on a modest income. I refer to my landlord as that big fat parasite with an awful wife.

My house is mostly made of cheap card board (the separating wall with the neighbours is cheap uninsulated plaster board -- you hear everything -- and I mean everything).

If you want a better quality of life stay out of the country if you can.

Yeah, that's why I'm avoiding renting. The landlord we're dealing with in the UK is a bit of a freak as well, I don't think I could deal with him if I didn't know it was a very temporary situation.

As for staying out of the country, no chance. I'm a dubliner!

muffler

hmmm wrote:

Why are you not willing to rent? Why do you expect the taxpayer to subsidise you buying a house?

Thats a helpful comment. Is he breaking any law here.

A Dub in Glasgo

Dublin is not for affordable housing. I do not know where in the UK you are but Dublin is about as expensive as it gets. Monopoly money for property which is one of the reasons I am still in Glasgow!

flogen

I'm in Wolverhampton. Frankly I'd rather live in my own anus.

LegacyUser

hmmm wrote:

Why are you not willing to rent? Why do you expect the taxpayer to subsidise you buying a house?

That is complete bull!! What are you on!! The OP is right! Why waste money on rent when they can buy. If they need to go for affordable housing then, GREAT!!!


Taxpayer subsidising?? Where are you getting that from?? Rent is a waste of money. Worse than flushing money down the toilet. I rented before buying - down the toilet, flush .. toilet duck ... flush .... toilet duck ... flush .... rent is a waste of money ... invest in your future .. cop on ...

OP congratulations - you are thinking of your future!!!!!! Best of luck with it - pay your own mortgage and not someone else's mortgage

flogen

bubby wrote:

OP congratulations - you are thinking of your future!!!!!! Best of luck with it - pay your own mortgage and not someone else's mortgage

Thank you, hopefully it will work out!

I'm hoping to contact the city council within the next week (before I go back) and I'll let you know what they say to me about not having income etc.

LegacyUser

Flogen, if you can afford .... then do it now .... rent is waste.
I really wish you the best of luck ...

I rented for a while and then bought (for a year) .. hate to have wasted more. 100 % mortgages .. .. if you have a career on the way.. get on the skateboard ... don't waste on rent if you don't have to.

B

madramor

flogen wrote:

Thank you, hopefully it will work out!

I'm hoping to contact the city council within the next week (before I go back) and I'll let you know what they say to me about not having income etc.

1: you will not qualify
* Applicant(s) must be First Time Buyer(s).
* Applicant(s) must be working in a full-time permanent capacity for at least 6 months prior to making an application.
* Income must be sufficient to support mortgage repayments.
* Evidence of a savings record in the sum of €650/€750 per month over a 3 month period prior to application. This level of savings must be maintained until Final Loan Approval issues. In the case of applicants living in the family home and paying “Keep”, this is not reckonable as part of a savings record.

2: i'd say they have a waiting list and they score people like they do with council provided housing.
ie(people from the area, people with families, etc..)
not people who arrive home and want a house waiting for them.

flogen

madramor wrote:

1: you will not qualify
* Applicant(s) must be First Time Buyer(s).
* Applicant(s) must be working in a full-time permanent capacity for at least 6 months prior to making an application.
* Income must be sufficient to support mortgage repayments.
* Evidence of a savings record in the sum of €650/€750 per month over a 3 month period prior to application. This level of savings must be maintained until Final Loan Approval issues. In the case of applicants living in the family home and paying “Keep”, this is not reckonable as part of a savings record.

2: i'd say they have a waiting list and they score people like they do with council provided housing.
ie(people from the area, people with families, etc..)
not people who arrive home and want a house waiting for them.

Yeah I figured as much, but couldn't see anything solid on it.

Also, I had no plans to come home and expect a house there and then, I just thought that this is something I should be thinking about now rather than 6 months down the line (especially if it means delaying everything by 6 months in the future).
I also know that they give preference to people living in the area, both myself and my girlfriend have lived within what is now Dublin City Council all of our lives, I doubt us moving to the UK for a total of 9 months for educational reasons would take too much away from that.

LegacyUser

Flogen ............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not saying anymore!!!!!!!!!!
Apply!! Get going!!
If it fails this year .. apply next ...keep applying ... until you get
a mortgage that you can afford (while being able to live comfotably).

Thumbs up for you thinking about this so soon after college.
Don't let negative people prevent you from checking with your bank.
How do they the know???? Another question, how do you now?
Banks can be amazing.

flogen

Cheers for your support bubby, I still plan on getting info from the council and doing what I can at this point, once I return I'll push things further too.

Don't worry, I'll only rent if I have to and that would be in the most extreme of cases.

If I can apply now I will, if I can't I'll get back, get my job (wherever that may be) and then apply at the soonest possible point.

LegacyUser

Sounds good

Victor

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

Dublin is not for affordable housing. I do not know where in the UK you are but Dublin is about as expensive as it gets. Monopoly money for property which is one of the reasons I am still in Glasgow!

There is a specific concept called "Affordable Housing" for people on lower incomes that want to buy instead of renting. Essentially, in a new housing scheme, the developer must contribute a portion of the land to the council for free. The council then builds on this land and sells the houses for the construction cost + overhead, i.e. Flogen would get his land for free. This can be combined with shared ownership loans, etc. to make the property even more affordable.

It means that people that would traditionall have been dependent on council housing are providing for themselves, with much less call on council funding (which in this case is a revolving fund, essentially self-financing).

hmmm

Affordable housing schemes are house purchases that are subsidised by the local authority (i.e. the taxpayer). If someone can afford to rent, I don't see why I should be expected to subsidise them to purchase. Why isn't there an "Affordable BMW" scheme? Seeing people who can perfectly afford to rent expect me to subsidise them because they want to buy property makes my blood boil.

Victor

hmmm wrote:

Affordable housing schemes are house purchases that are subsidised by the local authority (i.e. the taxpayer). If someone can afford to rent, I don't see why I should be expected to subsidise them to purchase. Why isn't there an "Affordable BMW" scheme? Seeing people who can perfectly afford to rent expect me to subsidise them because they want to buy property makes my blood boil.

No the only cost to the local authority is in administration.

flogen

hmmm wrote:

Affordable housing schemes are house purchases that are subsidised by the local authority (i.e. the taxpayer). If someone can afford to rent, I don't see why I should be expected to subsidise them to purchase. Why isn't there an "Affordable BMW" scheme? Seeing people who can perfectly afford to rent expect me to subsidise them because they want to buy property makes my blood boil.

As Victor points out it doesn't cost the taxpayer anything really, the land is given to the local authority and the house buyer pays for the building.

If anything there is a huge potential for the council to make a profit. If a buyer decides to sell within 10 - 15 years of their purchase they have to give a slice of their profit to the council.
well that's my understanding of the situation anyway.

coolhandluke

hmmm wrote:

Affordable housing schemes are house purchases that are subsidised by the local authority (i.e. the taxpayer). If someone can afford to rent, I don't see why I should be expected to subsidise them to purchase. Why isn't there an "Affordable BMW" scheme? Seeing people who can perfectly afford to rent expect me to subsidise them because they want to buy property makes my blood boil.

It's actually the other people in the estate that have subsidised the houses, because you can be damn sure it didn't come out of the builders pocket.

hmmm

coolhandluke wrote:

It's actually the other people in the estate that have subsidised the houses, because you can be damn sure it didn't come out of the builders pocket.

Of course it is - the cost of the affordable housing is simply added to the cost of the houses that us poor schmucks have to pay for. Some people seem to think that these subsidised houses materialise out of nowhere and costs no-one anything.

muffler

hmmm wrote:

Affordable housing schemes are house purchases that are subsidised by the local authority (i.e. the taxpayer). If someone can afford to rent, I don't see why I should be expected to subsidise them to purchase. Why isn't there an "Affordable BMW" scheme? Seeing people who can perfectly afford to rent expect me to subsidise them because they want to buy property makes my blood boil.

You have an attitude problem.

Go off and complain to your local TD (they are the people who make these regs.) about how you as a hard working person are expected to subsidse someone else in getting a house at a cheaper mortgage rate.

If you count it all up at the end of the day that person will still have to pay the same as me or you to own their house outright.

Dont forget to mention that you are also subsidising the likes of the childrens hospital with your taxes. Going to complain about that too?

flogen

hmmm wrote:

Of course it is - the cost of the affordable housing is simply added to the cost of the houses that us poor schmucks have to pay for. Some people seem to think that these subsidised houses materialise out of nowhere and costs no-one anything.

You don't have to pay for anything, you're as entitled to the scheme as anyone else, unless your income is quite high (40,000+).

I have to agree that you do have an attitude problem. The fact is that these schemes are needed in Dublin (and Ireland in general) because first time buyers are having difficulty getting onto the property ladder. I'm not too concerned that a construction company has to give over some of their land, the reality is they have been making a lot of money as it stands. If they try and push the price up on their other houses to compensate for the money they'll miss on the affordable housing land then the customers won't pay it.
I've already stated that Affordable housing is just one of the options I'll be considering, the only thing I've written off is renting because it's a waste of money IMO, I'm happy to live with my parents rather than rent (for the time being at least).
These schemes exist for a reason, just like everything else.

LegacyUser

hmmm wrote:

Affordable housing schemes are house purchases that are subsidised by the local authority (i.e. the taxpayer). If someone can afford to rent, I don't see why I should be expected to subsidise them to purchase. Why isn't there an "Affordable BMW" scheme? Seeing people who can perfectly afford to rent expect me to subsidise them because they want to buy property makes my blood boil.

Hmmmm has a bit of a point though.
If people can afford rent, then they can afford the mortgage??
The only problem they have is that the bank will not give the loan.
Therefore the government should have another schema inplace for those people, in the form of a loan - a government mortgage.

Hmmm's point may have been put accross bluntly .. but he has one.

flogen

bubby wrote:

Hmmmm has a bit of a point though.
If people can afford rent, then they can afford the mortgage??
The only problem they have is that the bank will not give the loan.
Therefore the government should have another schema inplace for those people, in the form of a loan - a government mortgage.

Hmmm's point may have been put accross bluntly .. but he has one.

That's a fair enough point, I mean I still don't know what kind of income to expect when I do get a job, the industry I'm moving into is very muddied in that respect.
I don't know for sure if I will be able to afford to rent, or if a bank will give me mortgage approval, I'll only know that when I get a permanent job

Nevyn

bubby wrote:

Therefore the government should have another schema inplace for those people, in the form of a loan - a government mortgage.

The affordible housing / shared ownership mortguage is that scheme.

coolhandluke

bubby wrote:

Hmmmm has a bit of a point though.
If people can afford rent, then they can afford the mortgage??
The only problem they have is that the bank will not give the loan.

How do you work this out ??
I know properties selling for E300,000 only renting for E850pm.There's properties all over dublin now on sale,for a lot more than what they'll get in rent if you take out a mortgage to buy them.
The bank won't give them a loan cos they can't afford it and these days you really can't afford it if the bank won't give it to you,cos there throwing money out.
Your mantra that rent is dead money is not exactly the true picture.