Social Housing Mechanism

Knock yerself out

"Stung" by this myself a few years back in a new build estate. The LA bought 3 houses in a row that were attached to our corner semi, and they housed travellers in the neighbouring property. Absolute nightmare it was. We sold up after a year, but I believe they were since moved out and it has settled down a bit amongst the few attached houses.

Thread carefully.

Live in a small council estate, former council tenant but most have been bought out and some 2nd generation buyers. There is 2 houses empty over 2 years and I'm anxiously waiting to see who they put in there. My neighbours on either side of me, council tenants and the nicest people you could meet all though one I wish would keep the appearance of the house a bit better.

Before considering a particular house in a development you need to find out with certainty which houses in the scheme are allocated to each class of purchaser. But be aware that sometimes the estate may be in construction and the houses not assigned for certainty due to prolonged discussions with the council. In other developments the social houses may have a slightly different finish as individual purchasers may have agreed alterations at extra cost.

it’s a minimum of 20% social housing. And if builder gets into difficulty an approved housing body can swoop in and buy up and houses not sold. Estates are a different beast nowadays.

Even with private estates, there's no guarantee you won't end up with nightmare neighbours.

Councils and AHBs are purchasing homes in addition to the Part V stock.

These newly purchased homes wont appear as reserved for the councils meaning the total number of social homes in a new estate could be much higher than the Part V allocation.

This practice also drives prices up for the private buyer since there are fewer properties available to purchase than was originally intended.

We were buying in a new estate a few years ago. We were happy enough with the 10 or 15% social allocation as it was. Then a friend who knew someone working in the agents told us that an AHB were buying another 30% of the houses for charity and that we should avoid. We made a few enquiries ourselves and they told us the truth so we pulled out and bought somewhere else, not a new build because we were afraid it would happen again. I dropped someone living in that estate home last year and drove past the house we had put our deposit on. The place was a tip. There were about 10 weirdos smoking out in the garden next door blasting music. The house on the other side looked like a dump, with the amount of stuff in the front garden. Bins overflowing and rubbish all over the place. There were houses that looked like that along each road I passed in the estate.

I think we had a lucky escape.

You know the whole system is flawed when people eligible for social housing are getting 900k houses. Its nearly more beneficial to give up working in a middle imcome job and just getting a minimum wage job in the local shop. Get HAP to cover your rent until you recieve the keys to your new house courtesy of the irish tax payer.

Prefer the option of keeping my current job which pays a good salary and go down the route of starting a family with my girlfriend and get her and the kids on the housing list. Then move in with them when they get the keys to the brand new 3 bed semi-d. Have a few direct relatives and work colleagues who opted for that route. Get the free house whilst maintaining your good salary.

Is its provision not means tested?

Only initially …

Up to the maximum level. Which is still less than most mortages.

Its endemic across all levels. One of my cousins is a guard. His partner a teacher, and theyve 3 kids. They got a brand spanking new house courtesy of the council to which her father is a current county council representative. Ireland at its finest.