Case study - sale of an affordable home through Fingal County Council

[Thinkingaboutit]

Hi,

I want to post my recent account of selling an affordable property because there doesn't seem to be many real life scenarios out there for anyone thinking of selling up.

Summary of figures




Background
Bought in 2010 (post boom) a 2 bed apartment for €158,000 of fingal county council at a reduced market value of 18.97%.
Fast forward 7 years, husband and two active kids later means apartment no longer viable so set about selling.

Selling process
Contacted local estate agents x 2 who had never heard of scheme....proceeded to explain how it has no effect on potential buyers and were happy enough. They explained that apartments in my development were now on sale and selling for circa €235,000. However upon viewing both EA's came to same figure of €222,000 based on lower spec in comparison to other apartments (i.e smaller room sizes, no ensuite, different heating system, poor rated BER). Apartment went up for sale and was sale agreed pretty fast at asking price of €220,000 but fell through twice when contracts were shown to solicitors for buyers over uncertainty of AF. Third buyer was cash buyer and again bidding was complete at €220,000 so sale agreed and went through.

Finances
My solicitor wrote to fingal informing them of sale and they sent a return letter requesting 18.97% of the overall sale price upon completion as well as a sealing fee of €50.00. Therefore the figures were as such:

Paid to Fingal on completion of sale - €41,783.00
Selling fees for myself (solicitor and EA) €5,000
Profit from sale for myself ~ €15,000

So as I stated at the start I just wanted to provide an up to date account of selling an affordable property.

If anyone wants further information please let me know.

 

[skipper1978]

Thanks a lot for this post. It is very informative and very clear how the sales process went.

Fingal seem to have run things much smoother than other councils in terms of affordable housing scheme.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hi Thinking about it

That is very interesting and very useful.

To make it clearer I have edited your original post to put the information in tabular form.

Brendan

 

[homeboy]

Interesting that the OP's apartment was a lower spec/smaller than the other apartments.

I viewed several affordable properties back in the day. The affordable units were always less favourable than the units on the open market.

 

[WillIBeRich?]

Hello, I'm considering selling my affordable home that was purchased with DLRCC in 2008. Would you know of or recommend your solicitor as I particularly would like to work with a solicitor who knows about the AH part V scheme. TIA.

Congratulations on selling your home & hope you are pleased with the outcome.