Print this PageGlossary of Affordable Home Terms
Affordable Home
An Affordable Home is a home provided at a discount rate to the market price for people in employment, who cannot afford to buy a home on the open market. Affordable homes are of the same quality and standard as homes available for sale privately. An affordable home must be owner occupied.
Affordable Housing Initiative (AHI)
The Affordable Housing Initiative(AHI) provides for the building of affordable homes on State and Local Authority owned lands.
Annuity Loan
An Annuity Loan is a mortgage from a local authority. It is payable over a period up to a maximum of 30 years. The maximum loan available is 97% of the purchase price, which is up to a maximum of €220,000. A 3% deposit is required with this type of loan. The maximum income limits, which apply for this loan are: €50,000 for a single applicant and €75,000 combined income for joint applicants.
Circular
Circulars are guidance notes issued by a government department on how to implement legislation and distributed to a large number of interested parties i.e. local authorities.
Clawback
If the borrower sells their affordable home within 20 years they have to pay back to the local authority a percentage of the selling price which is directly linked to the initial discount they received. This is called ‘clawback’. The amount to be paid back will depend on when the person sells the affordable home (within 20 years) and how much discount they received on the original price from the local authority.
Direct Sales
A standardised process for the sale of affordable homes directly by the developers/builders to applicants nominated by local authorities.
First Time Buyer
First Time Buyer relates to a person who has not on any previous occasion purchased or built on his/her behalf a house. The property being purchased is for the purpose of being a principal place of residence and where no rent, other than rent a room scheme, is derived from the property for five years after the date of the current purchase.
Market Value
Market value is the price of the accommodation one would expect to receive if advertised for sale on the open market.
Mortgage
A mortgage is a long term loan that is secured against a property.
Mortgage Allowance
Mortgage allowance is an allowance of €11,450 to go towards payment of a mortgage, paid over a five year period. The allowance is paid directly to the mortgage lender thus reducing mortgage payments for the first five years.
Mortgage Subsidy
A mortgage subsidy is a supplement to reduce mortgage payments for low income households who have a local authority mortgage. It is paid to the local authority by the DoEHLG. Household income must be less than €28,000.
Owner Occupier
Owner occupier is where an individual uses a residential property as his or her sole or main residence.
Part V Affordable
Part V affordable homes are in private developments. A local authority may require up to 20% of a residential development to be provided for affordable homes and social homes.
Purchaser
A purchaser is a person to whom an affordable house is sold.
Principal Income
Principle income is the highest income earned within the household.
Redemption
If a purchaser wants to sell or remortgage their affordable property, they need to fill out a redemption application form requesting redemption figures i.e. the outstanding mortgage due plus what they owe on the “clawback”.
Registering the Title
Registering the title is an up to date official record of who owns the land. It is a safe and straightforward way of transferring land between the buyer and the seller that helps to prevent fraud.
Registered
The title has been registered in the Land Registry.
Registry of Deeds
This is a system of recording the existence of deeds and conveyances affecting unregistered property. A failure to register may result in that document losing priority to a subsequent document that is registered.
Rent Subsidy
Rent subsidy is a supplement to reduce rent payments for low income households under the Shared Ownership Scheme. Borrowers whose household incomes are less than €28000 are eligible for rent subsidy on their equity share.
Shared Ownership
Shared ownership is where people part buy and part rent their home from the local authority. Purchasers under this scheme must get mortgage finance from the local authority.
Site Subsidy
Site subsidy is available to meet site acquisition costs plus holding charges for a period up to seven years and site development costs. The amount of the subsidy payable will be the difference between site costs incurred in providing the houses and the amount of site cost included in the sale price of the house to the individual applicant subject to the maximum limits referred to above.
Snagging
Snagging is the production of a list of quality defects at the end of a build process/phase/stage.
Subsidiary Income
Subsidiary income is auxiliary income earned by the household.
Title Deeds
This is the document that proves legal ownership of the affordable home. It is signed at the stage of contracts. The title can be registered with the land registry or the registry of deeds.
Turn Key Development
A turn key development is a development of ready-to-use apartments/houses without any adjustment necessary.
Unregistered
The title is not yet registered in the Land Registry and so the Registry of Deeds system applies.
