MORE THAN 1,500 affordable housing units have been transferred for use as social housing as local authorities attempt to address a glut of unsold properties following the downturn in the housing market.
Figures provided by the Department of the Environment and Local Government show that, at the beginning of February, there were 1,565 units on the books of the 34 local authorities, 407 which were in the process of being sold leaving 1,158 houses on the hands of the various councils.
This is down from 3,700 affordable houses which were on the councils’ books in early 2009.
This reduction in affordable housing stock is partially due to 1,300 houses which have been approved by the department to be used for social housing while 200 units have already been transferred to the social housing stock.
The affordable housing scheme was designed to provide homes at a discount to the market price for people who could not afford to buy a home on the open market. But the demand for such homes has now collapsed.
The highest number of affordable units are on the books of the Dublin and Cork local authority areas.
In the four Dublin local authority areas there were more than 500 affordable housing units available for sale in February, while Cork City Council and Cork County Council had almost 240 affordable housing units for sale between them.
Just two local authorities, Limerick City Council and Monaghan County Council, had no leftover affordable housing stock in February 2010 while two other councils, Waterford County Council and Donegal County Council were in the process of selling all their remaining affordable units.
Dublin City Council said the number of affordable units had since fallen and that the council had 115 units available for sale.
He said the council was looking at a number of ways to reduce their affordable housing stock and were proposing six ways in which to utilise the remaining housing stock as per a departmental circular on the matter.
The proposals include: sale under the incremental purchase scheme; transfer of houses to the rental accommodation scheme; use as temporary accommodation for social housing applicants; sale; rent to buy and use for other purposes.
A spokeswoman for Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council’s housing department said the 208 unsold also included affordable units available for purchase by direct sale from developers. She said the total of unsold units in council ownership stood at 138 while 51 of these were in process of sale.
She added that a report to the April council meeting had recommended that unsold affordable units should be placed on the open market. Where the units remain unsold after a period of six months they will be considered for a proposed “let to buy” scheme or for transfer into temporary social housing.
A spokeswoman for Fingal County Council said it has 131 affordable units available for sale, adding that the council are examining the possibility of transferring units for use as social housing using the Government leasing scheme.
She said the number of affordable housing units on hand should be viewed as “legacy stock” from agreements entered into prior to the collapse in the property market.
According to a spokesman for the department, the individual local authorities are considering how best to deploy the remaining units.
“While the sale of the affordable units . . . remains the preferred option, the local authorities are continuing to consider a wide range of options to bring these units into use,” he added.