Welcome for updates to tenant purchase scheme

The programme allows council tenants to buy their home.

Changes to the tenant purchase scheme have been welcomed by local TD Brendan Smith.

The changes, which have been introduced by the Housing Minister, will come into effect from the 1st February.

Under the scheme, pensioners will now be able to buy their council home. The income level tenants must meet has dropped from €15,000 to €12,500.

Previously, people in receipt of a state pension payment would have been unable to meet the threshold.

Deputy Brendan Smith has welcomed the news.

“I have a number of cases throughout the constituency where families have been tenants of council houses for upwards of 30 years or more and were unable to purchase their own home.

“The Programme for Government commits to maintaining the right of social housing tenants to purchase their own home. The Fianna Fáil party has placed home ownership at the heart of Housing for All, our long-term housing policy to 2030. Minister Darragh O’Brien has also committed to a number of other reforms of the social housing system.”