Council to sell unwanted ‘affordable’ homes

Date Published: 28-Jul-2009

GALWAY City’s property market looks set to be flooded with an excess supply of scores of houses for sale, as the Local Authority plans to offload its Affordable Housing stock at competitive knock-down prices on the open market.

The Sentinel has learned Galway City Council will next week offer for sale a total of 90 homes on the open market that were built and originally intended to be sold as ‘Affordable Houses’ for people who were not in a financial position to pay the going market rates and get on the property ladder.

The 90 properties – ranging from one, two, three and four bed houses and apartments in estates scattered all over the city – will be priced at between €150,000 and €220,000 on the open market and will be on sale from the end of this week or early next week.

The Council hopes the homes will be attractive particularly to first-time buyers who may not have been eligible to apply for affordable houses.

The sale of Council-owned ‘Affordable Houses’ comes despite the fact that as many as 2,500 people are on the City’s Social Housing waiting list and a further 200 are on the Council’s Affordable Housing list.

A spokesperson for the Council said the…