The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme came into operation on 1 January 2016. The Scheme is open to eligible tenants, including joint tenants, of local authority houses that are available for sale under the Scheme. To be eligible, tenants must meet certain criteria, including having a minimum reckonable income of €15,000 per annum and having been in receipt of social housing support for at least one year.
A review of the first 12 months of the Scheme’s operation has been undertaken. As part of this review, a public consultation process on the Tenant Purchase Scheme was published on the Department’s website and opened to the public on 13 January 2017, and it remained open until 10 February 2017. Written submissions were sought on the scheme from interested members of the public. There are no plans to hold a further consultative process on this scheme.
The Programme for Government commits to maintaining the right of social housing tenants to purchase their own home with some changes to eligibility. The review and the commitments in the Programme for Government are being examined as part of the work on the broader social housing reform agenda. I expect to be in a position to finalise changes to the Scheme once the work on these reform measures is complete.
