Housing Authority's property scheme

With reference to the letter Left Out Of Government Property Scheme (December 1) the Housing Authority would like to clarify some points.

In February 2007 the Housing Authority launched the Equity Sharing Scheme to help those engaged couples and families with children, and who cannot reach the price of the property through a bank loan, to buy their first property from the private sector.

The scheme was aimed for 250 applications. As it was very successful, this number of applications had been accepted by the end of April 2008 with expenditure amounting to over €6.5 million.

Therefore applications submitted after April 24 were not processed but details of the applicants were kept for the record and are now considered under the new scheme. If applications were refused, this was done on eligibility grounds.

The Housing Authority would like to underline that these schemes are aimed to help first-time buyers purchase their first property, who without this assistance would not be able to do so.

As the Authority understands that in some cases the process of purchase could not be halted, those applicants who applied under the old scheme after April 24 but signed a preliminary agreement before the new scheme was launched are still considered under the new scheme.

But persons who concluded their purchase before October 1, meaning before the scheme was launched and information on the assistance was available, are not eligible as one can conclude that they can afford to buy the property even without assistance.