Waterford young people could be offered affordable home if they rent for 20 years

A Waterford councillor has suggested that young people could be offered the chance to purchase an affordable home if they rent for 20 years first.

Fianna Fáil councillor Eamon Quinlan brought forward a proposed pathway to homeownership at the December plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.

Cllr Quinlan said: “There’s a cohort of people out there that make too much for social housing but not enough to buy their own house, even with the Affordable Purchase Scheme.

“However, I suppose for my generation and the people I talk to, people are very slow to give up on the dream of owning their own home.

“We might be able to offer them okay rents renting somewhere for 10, 15, 20 years, but the majority won’t concede their hope of home ownership so most will stay living with their parents.

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“Most will stay and try to save up money living with their parents and it’ll be years before they really give up on that dream.”

He went on to outline his plan to instill confidence among young people in the council’s housing schemes.

“I think what would be the silver bullet to unlock that cohort, that [they] would have confidence in the cost-rental housing would be if we add at the end, that after 20 years of paying their rent, keeping the house well, being law-abiding citizens, that they would become eligible for the Tenant Purchase Scheme.

“That after 20 years of living in this house and paying rent, that they could then choose to purchase that house at a 50 per cent discount, like we offer social housing tenants who have been in a house paying their rent.

Cllr Quinlan concluded by saying that he believes there would be a big demand for such an initiative.

“I think that middle cohort would be banging down our door trying to get into cost rental housing where they would have 20 years of stabilised rents if they knew they had an option of turning that genuinely into their multi-generational family home.

“Whether that’s something we can decide here or whether that’s something we need to write to the minister of the department to get that kind of permission, I think that’s a way that you will really create a brighter future for that cohort.”

Cllr Quinlan received no response to his suggestion from the council executive.

He was speaking amid a discussion on the council’s Affordable Housing Survey - the results of which were brought forward at the meeting.
There were just under 400 respondents to the survey, the majority of which chose Waterford as their preferred place to live.

The survey found that on average, Waterford house-hunters see €250,000 to be the maximum price for ‘affordable housing’.

However, houses the average price of a house in County Waterford currently stands at €299,000.

Nevertheless, the majority of respondents said they are interested in the scheme.