Buying a Council House

If you have been a tenant of a local authority house for at least one year, you can apply to your local authority's Housing Department to buy it. You can buy the house either outright or through shared ownership.

This "tenant purchase scheme" covers most local authority housing, apart from:

Apartments or flats
Houses provided for and occupied by elderly people
Houses excluded by the local authority "for reasons of good estate management", because of their structural condition or if they have proposals to carry out remedial works to them

The price

The price of the house is its market value as determined by the local authority in its existing state of repair and condition, minus discounts.

The house's structural condition is taken into account, and any increase in the market value due to home improvements you've done is disregarded in calculating the price.

If you disagree with the local authority's valuation, you can look for a valuation certificate from a qualified valuer. If there is a significant difference between this and the local authority's valuation, the local authority will refer it to the Valuation Office.

You will be allowed a discount of 3% of the value of the house for each year of the tenancy, up to a maximum of 10 years plus €3,809.21. You don't have to pay stamp duty on the sale.

Mortgages

You can either get a mortgage with a bank or building society or you can apply to your local authority for a local authority mortgage.

This may be a variable interest rate loan so that repayments will go up or down with general interest rates or the interest rate can be fixed for the first five years of the loan.

Selling the house

If you decide to sell the house within 20 years of the date you bought it on (or before you have acquired full ownership if you are buying it in a shared ownership scheme), you have to get the local authority's permission.

Low cost housing sites

Some local authorities also provide housing sites at a low cost to help people in need of housing, to provide their own housing. Contact the Housing Department of your local authority for full details.

Your building costs may be funded by a mortgage from a bank or building society, or - if you are eligible - from a local authority. The scheme is specifically designed to be used with other housing schemes such as the Shared Ownership Scheme, the Affordable Housing Scheme and the Mortgage Allowance Scheme.

If the site needs specialised development work to enable construction to go ahead, the local authority may make a financial contribution to these costs.

Sites and eligibility

To be eligible for a low-cost site, you need to be one of the following:

Registered on a housing waiting list with a local authority
A local authority tenant or a tenant purchaser and you want to buy a private house and return your present house to the local authority
A tenant for more than one year of a home provided by a housing association under the Rental Subsidy Scheme and you want to buy a private house and return your present house to the local authority
A member of a co-operative or non-profit housing group of which at least 75% of the members are tenants, tenant purchasers or registered on the local authority housing waiting list
Involved in a "group shared ownership project" - in this case low-cost sites can be made available by the local authority for all the houses in the scheme, whether or not each individual would be eligible.

If you sell a house on one of these low-cost sites within 10 years, you pay the local authority the difference between the sale price and the market value of the site. This amount is then reduced by 10% each year after that, so if you sell after 20 years, you don't have to pay anything back for the site.

Learn more

Read the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government's housing policies

Find your local authority website