Donabate - Affordable housing scheme

Systemic46

Hi, I'm considering buying a new built in Balmoston - Donabate and was pretty set on it. Talking to relatives and friends, they said it may not be a great idea as around 90 houses will be occupied by people on the affordable housing scheme.

Their concerns are around:

• People wont care about their homes as they don't fully own it
• There may be a lot of renters / safety may be an issue
• House losing value

By buying a property in a new development, I am really hoping to build a community with my neighbours as I've got a small kid.

Now I see affordable housing as different from the 'social housing' but hey, not to say social housing are bad either. I guess they are good and bad people everywhere.. Issue with the new built is that we wont get to meet our neighbours before moving, so it's a lottery..

And yes I'm also worried about the lack of amenities around there given the sizes of the upcoming developments but it's the same everywhere from what I've seen so far.

I'm really confused and I'm now very unsure on what to do so looking for general advice… to buy or not to buy…

Thanks!

Gary_dunne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058348948/donabate-affordable-housing-scheme

Hi, OP I am one of those people who applied for the affordable housing scheme's in Balmonston. It is very different from social housing and they have increased the salary cap from around €70k to around €102k (from what I remember) which allowed myself and my partner to apply.

The prices that people will be paying who get accepted for the scheme would likely be around the 400k mark. I don't think that people who are paying 400k will not care about their homes no matter what % is shared equity.

There are quite strict requirements about who can apply for the affordable home scheme, they won't be sold to Buy to Let individuals.

On the house losing value point this is completely up in the air as Donabate itself is still in it's initial development phase as a suburban area, it'll be interesting to see how it develops over the next 5-10 years. It definitely requires more amenities and public transport links for the scale of building proposed in the area.

Hope some of this helps.

SharkMX

Speaking as someone who had to commute from Donabate for nearly a year, just check the traffic in the mornings at the time you would be commuting. If you can get the train fine, but if you are working anywhere that requires bus or car the traffic coming out of Donabate in the morning will break you.

If you can use the train, will you always be working in the same place where you can get the train to? Just test it out before committing to buy there.

Systemic46

Thanks so much that's so helpful Gary_Dunne, didn't know there were so many requisites! Definitely makes me lean towards going for it then.. I wonder that even though there's a high number of affordable houses, if there will also be social housing on top?

SharMX, I work remote but my partner will have to commute to town 3x a week near Baggot st so that's definitely something we need to consider. He's seen the 33D that goes St Stephens but there's only one going at 7.30am.. do you know if it's a reliable service? Otherwise a train to Grand canal but it seems there's not so many either..

With all these developments, our only hope is that transport will get better at some point…

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122067558#Comment_122067558

Go with the train. The bus back can take a long time. Awkward times too. Definitely test out the commute before you buy though.

Jc2023

Hi, Just wondering if you've heard back on your application for this scheme or if anyone has any experience with the affordable housing scheme from fingal coco and how long it took them to get a response on their application?

Thanks 😊

Gary_dunne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093346#Comment_122093346

I haven't heard anything back from the application process and can imagine it's very unlikely that I do. They usually are reviewed on a 1st come 1st serve basis and we didn't get our application in til the day after it went live and were over #200 from what I can remember.

colinf14tc

Do you know if the reference number you receive actually the position you are in the queue for a house? Had this been confirmed by Fingal council?

I'm unsure.

Thanks Gary

Gary_dunne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122460712#Comment_122460712

It hasn't been confirmed no, however we got an application in on another affordable housing scheme within 20 mins of it opening and we were #36 for that one so I'm making an educated guess.

Heard nothing back from either of them anyway.

Osmosis Jones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122649620#Comment_122649620

I believe the reference number is your order on the list, I got in to one within 20 minutes and was given #30, the rest I applied for within around 24 hours and all reference numbers were in the 100s. We got an offer at #30 (EDIT: Not for Donabate, different scheme).

Gary_dunne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122649684#Comment_122649684

That's what I was saying with my educated guess to the previous poster. It wasn't officially confirmed by Fingal.

If your number is anywhere over #10 there seems to be little to no chance anyway.

brónaim cád??

Have offers been given for this scheme? I haven't heard anything. I think I did the application in May or June.

parnellie

We were #145 for this scheme, applied back in April when it first opened. We got a response today to say our details have been passed to the selling agent and they are provisionally holding a house for us. Next we expect contact from the agent about which house we want and we have to pay a booking deposit to hold it for us.

VD78

Hi,

Congrats, I received the same message as you last week for a 3 bed house. Have you heard anything further, do you know when they’ll be ready. Thanks