Ballina deemed eligible for affordable housing scheme
Ballina is now eligible for an affordable housing scheme following extensive campaigning by local representatives, lobbying to the Department of Housing, and a KPMG report that identified the market need in the Mayo town.
Under the Affordable Purchase Scheme, newly built homes can be bought at a reduced price to first-time buyers and other eligible purchasers who cannot afford to buy a house at full market value.
As part of the scheme, the local authority takes an equity share in the home equal to the difference between its open market value and the reduced purchase price paid by the buyer.
The maximum equity the state can take is €75,000.
The scheme offers another option for those who earn above the social housing threshold but are unable to get onto the property ladder due to rising house prices.
According to the Real Estate Alliance House Price Index Report, the average price of a three-bedroom semi-detached home in Mayo rose by 14.2pc last year to €274,000.
At the January meeting of the Ballina Municipal District, councillors welcomed the announcement.
They had raised the issue at multiple meetings last year, constantly highlighting the need to push for both affordable and social housing units in the town.
Cllr Marie Therese Duffy praised the outcome of the KPMG report, which confirmed the need for affordable housing in the town.
She has previously proposed that 10pc of all future housing schemes in Ballina should be earmarked for affordable units to help meet local demand.
Cllr Annie May Reape described the approval as “long overdue”.
“We should have been eligible for this three years ago. [Minister Calleary] pushed for this to the former Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien,” she said.
“It will make a big difference for a lot of couples who are in between incomes,” she added.
Cllr Jarlath Munnelly also welcomed the news, noting that the lack of affordable housing had been a recurring topic at council meetings. He stressed the importance of ensuring that future housing schemes include a good mix of social and affordable units.
“We want to have something for everyone in Ballina,” he said.
Elsewhere in Mayo, an affordable housing scheme in Castlebar is currently under review by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
If approved, the scheme would see 35 affordable units built at the Heather View development in Snugboro.
The units, ranging between €260,000 and €300,000 would include:
Four, two-bedroom mid-terrace units,
Six, two-bedroom end-of-terrace units,
Eight, three-bedroom mid-terrace units,
11, three-bedroom end of terrace units
Six, three-bedroom semi-detached units.
It would be the first large-scale affordable housing development offered in Mayo.
Unlike social housing, there are currently no Government-set targets for affordable housing.
In an attempt to address the shortfall, members of the Mayo County Council Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) on Housing proposed last year that the council set its own target of building 100 affordable units per year until the end of the current council cycle in 2029.
However, they were later informed that there had been a “kickback” at the department level regarding the proposed 400-unit target, with questions raised over whether there was a level of need in Mayo that justified that scale of delivery.
Head of the Housing SPC, Councillor Peter Flynn, has called for a Department representative to attend their next meeting, and said that affordable housing should be placed at the top of the council’s priority list.
Since 2012, five affordable units have been delivered in Mayo, all of which were part of the Bog Road Demesne development in Westport, which was opened by Minister for Housing James Browne last September.
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.