Affordable housing candidates queue

AFFORDABLE HOUSING candidates have queued outside the Docklands Authority building on Sir John Rogerson's Quay in Dublin since Thursday night in the hope of buying one of 68 apartments which go on sale today.

About 800 people have registered their interest in buying the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments whose prices range from €210,000 to €295,000, and which for the first time are being sold on a first come, first served basis.

Until recently, affordable housing candidates were chosen from a list and matched with homes. Candidates' positions on the list depended on the number of points they had, which were determined by factors such as earnings, family circumstance and employment sector.

However, in the last year many of those offered housing have rejected it, largely because the fall in prices in the private market has made affordable housing less attractive, leaving Dublin City Council with a glut of several hundred houses for which they are paying expensive bridging loans.

Affordable homes are generally offered at a 20 to 30 per cent discount on market rates. However, in exchange for the discount, buyers cannot sell their properties within 20 years without paying a "claw back" of the percentage discount they received.

With the difference between the price of an affordable house and a private house decreasing, buyers became less willing to get tied into long-term deals with the council.

Apartments will be sold on a firstcome, firstserved basis from 10am today to anyone on the council's affordable housing list who registered their interest before April 17th last.

Qualifying buyers attending the sale must have provisional mortgage approval and must have a €3,000 booking deposit and a number of financial documents specified by the council when they registered their interest.

In scenes not witnessed since the height of the property boom, buyers have queued overnight since Thursday in the hope of securing a new home.

Marian Kearney was queuing in the rain yesterday on behalf of her daughter. "We're doing it in shifts," she said. "She really wants one of the apartments - she's been on the list for 12 years."