Assembly announces extra funding for Co-Ownership
Tuesday 15 January 2008
Responding to today's Ministerial announcement of an additional £19m in 2007/08 from the December monitoring round, Alan Crowe, Co-Ownership Housing's Chief Executive, says
“This is a welcome and much needed boost for Co-Ownership buyers and should deliver an extra 200 homes over the next 3 months. We are the only show in town at the moment for many people trying to get onto the housing ladder, and the £19m reflects the continuing high demand for our services.”
“As a result, we are operating at twice the level of government targets for 2007/08” explains Alan. “Over 700 homes have already been occupied through Co-Ownership in the nine months from April to December 2007, over 300 more have been agreed for purchase and are awaiting completion dates, and applications for a further 125 homes are being processed as I speak.”
““We are backing local buyers with an average of £85,000 per property at this time. The £19m is a response to our request for extra funding this year to meet the surge in demand.”
“This surge in people taking up Co-Ownership reflects that the average home in Northern Ireland is still unaffordable for many people. Although interest is strong right across the range of starter shares we offer (from 40% to 75%) there is a lot of interest in the lowest share of 40%. That’s because the lower the share option the more affordable the property becomes. Currently 1 in 5 of the buyers we are working with are opting for the lowest possible starter share, and that’s down to affordability – it’s as much as they can afford.”
"We are also actively in discussion with government about funding from April onwards, as no let up in demand is expected."
