A new scheme could provide some families on low incomes a means to purchase their own homes.
Families who qualify for the new Incremental Purchase Scheme will be able to purchase new social housing for forty per cent of the purchase price. The remaining sixty per cent will be gradually transferred to them over a thirty year period at no extra cost.
The new Incremental Purchase Scheme will allow low income families to buy out new social housing for just forty per cent of the purchase price.
Local authority tenants like Marie Connolly have been battling for over twenty years to buy out her own home. Authorities say that their are legal challenges relating to estate management. Marie Connolly and her husband are both pensioners and would not qualify for a mortgage.
Minister for Housing Michael Finneran says the new scheme offers young people the opportunity to get on to the housing ladder.
Threshold has warned that purchasers of these properties will be low income families and may not be able to afford the responsibilities of maintaining the properties.
The minister says that the money earned by the exchequer from the scheme would be put back into housing on a national basis.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 25 July 2008. The reporter is John Kilraine.
