The Irish Home Builders' Association (IHBA) has proposed a shared housing scheme as well as changes in taxation and planning.

The IHBA initiative would allow homeowners access to more expensive housing than they would otherwise be able to afford.

The shared equity scheme would work as a public/private partnership. The home-buyer would share ownership of the property with a fund supported by the Government and the home builders until it was sold or wholly acquired by the homeowner at the end of an agreed period.

The idea, which is based on the local authority shared-ownership scheme, would allow many people currently not in a position to afford their own home to buy one, Mr Francis Rhatigan, chairman of the IHBA said. Under the scheme, the buyer would have to put up 10 per cent of the value of the home and repay the maximum mortgage available based on their income from a financial institution. The balance would be made up by the fund. This means that the homeowners would repay the mortgage as well as rent to the fund relating to the part of the property it owned.

But, according to Mr Michael Goggins of the IHBA, it would still mean only one repayment.

"This is for people who have the capacity to repay but not the capacity to raise the large amount of funds needed through a mortgage. It would also be cheaper than a mortgage for the whole amount," he said.

The IHBA said it envisaged the Exchequer providing most of the seed capital. However, Mr Goggins insisted it would be far cheaper than the existing local authority scheme, costing only £16 million for 3,000 homes.

The plan would also involve a developer "voluntarily" meeting a set of qualifying conditions. These would include ensuring that at least 10 per cent of the houses on sale would be at prices less than equivalent premises in the area.

However, it also calls for the deletion of mandatory percentages for social housing under planning guidelines.

The plan also calls for all development activities to be taxed at the same rate as all other activity, that is eventually at 12.5 per cent. The recent Finance Bill proposes that developers be taxed at 25 per cent along with petroleum and certain other activities. "These would be needed to ensure the voluntary element," Mr Goggins said.