Shared Ownership

Shared ownership is a system which facilitates access to full home ownership in two or more stages to persons who cannot afford full ownership immediately.  The applicant will initially acquire a (minimum 40%, maximum 75%) share in a house (or flat) and rents the remainder from the local authority, with an undertaking to acquire the remaining equity within a 25 year period (or the lifetime of the loan, whichever is the least)

Who Qualifies

The following are eligible for consideration under the shared ownership system:

(a) tenants and tenant purchasers of local authority dwellings who intend to return their dwelling to the authority on providing a private house for their own occupation under the system; 

(b) persons included by a local authority in its latest assessment of housing needs under Section 9 of the Housing Act, 1988, or accepted for inclusion in the next such assessment; 

(c) tenants of one year’s standing of houses provided by approved housing bodies under the Rental Subsidy Scheme who intend to return their houses to the housing body on providing a private house for their own occupation under the system; 

(d) persons in need of housing whose gross household income in the preceding tax year, calculated in accordance with a formula, does not exceed €100,000.00.  Under the formula, income will be reckoned as follows: 

·  in the case of a single income household, two and a half times the borrower’s gross income in the preceding tax year, 

·  in the case of a two income household, two and a half times the gross income of the principal earner, plus once the other income.