Only five Dublin council tenants bought their home this year

Only five council house tenants in Dublin purchased their home this year as part of an initiative which offered discounts of 40 to 60 per cent on the market value of the properties.

More than 11,000 tenants were offered the opportunity to buy their properties earlier this year as part of a tenant-purchase scheme proposed by Dublin City Council.

A council spokeswoman said all eligible tenants were contacted with information about the scheme, and approximately 850 people requested and received applications forms.

The council said to date it had received 166 applications from tenants wishing to purchase their home, and were at various stages of the process. Five of these applications were currently awaiting close of sale.

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A spokeswoman said once an application form was returned the council arranged a valuation of the property, and the tenant was then left to source the funds required to purchase it. “It is expected that further applications will be processed in the coming months,” she said.

Discount

Many were critical of the previous government’s decision to reintroduce the right to buy council houses at a discount given the chronic shortage of social housing across the country, with the council’s previous initiative having been discontinued in 2012.

Under the new scheme applicants earning more than €30,000 per year receive 40 per cent off the price, those with an income of €20,000-€30,000 pay 50 per cent of the market value, and those with an income of €15,000-€20,000 get a discount of 60 per cent.

Under the terms of the scheme, residents of one-bedroom homes, and 775 people living alone in three- and four-bed houses were excluded from the scheme as a consequence of the housing shortage in the city.

The new scheme, which took effect from January but only became operational in April, offers discounts of up to twice those offered under the last scheme.

Tenants of council houses have been able to buy their homes from individual local authorities since the 1930s, and a national scheme for the sale of council houses was introduced in 1973.

The latest scheme offers discounts based not on the longevity of the tenancy but on the income of the tenant.