Buy and Renew Scheme
The Buy and Renew Scheme supports local authorities in purchasing and renewing housing units in need of repair and making them available for social housing use. It is a matter for each local authority to determine a property’s suitability for social housing. It aims to help tackle the problem of dereliction and to improve an area’s appearance.
As a complementary initiative to the Repair and Leasing Scheme, it provides the option for suitable properties to be purchased rather than leased, if that is the property owner’s preference.
Ready to Build Scheme
Under the Ready to Build Scheme, local authorities make serviced sites in towns and villages available to potential individual purchasers (self-builders). These sites will be available at a discount on the market value of the site for the building of a property for occupation as the principal private residence of the purchaser.
It is intended that the local authority will develop existing site(s) in their control or purchase site(s) and make them available for development by providing services and access to the site(s) concerned.
The level of discount to the individual will depend on the level of servicing cost incurred by the local authority before the sale of the site but will not exceed €30,000. The amount of such discount will be reflected in the sale price of the site to the purchaser.
The buyer of the site must reside in the dwelling built on the site as his or her principal private residence on completion of the dwelling.
Meath County Council is in the process of identifying suitable lands to be able to deliver this scheme and will update this section of the website when further information is available.
Fair Deal Scheme Reformed
The Fair Deal scheme provides financial support to help pay for the cost of care in a nursing home. Until recently, as part of the financial assessment under Fair Deal, those in the scheme made two types of contributions towards the cost of their care:
- up to 80% of their assessable income, including rental income
- 7.5% of the value of certain assets, such as a home, each year, for a maximum of 3 years.
The sale of a home by a Fair Deal applicant could have led to uncapped contributions to the scheme. Together, these conditions provided a disincentive to applicants to sell or rent their homes after they had entered care.
Under changes brought in under Housing for All, the cap from contributions based on the value of a principal residence has been extended. It now includes proceeds from the sale of that residence.
This means, if a resident decides to sell their home while they are in care, the net proceeds of the sale will also qualify for the 3-year cap. By treating the home and its proceeds in a similar way, the Act removes any disincentive for people who want to sell a home left vacant after they enter residential care.
In addition, residents who choose to rent out their vacant home will now be assessed at 40% of their rental income instead of 80%. This means that residents can keep 60% of the income instead of 20%. The change in the assessment rate took effect from 01 November 2022.
It is estimated that this measure will bring between 400 and 2,000 rental properties into use, at any one time, once fully established. The policy change will also benefit many older people in long-term care by providing them access to an additional source of income.