Buying or inheriting a local authority home

You can buy or inherit a local authority home in certain circumstances.

There are schemes to help you buy your local authority home. If you qualify, they let you buy the home at a discounted rate.

If a close family member has a local authority home and they die, you may be able to inherit their tenancy. You must meet certain criteria to qualify for this.

The exact rules for inheriting a tenancy can vary from one local authority to another. They are outlined in your local authority's housing allocations scheme, which you can find on your local authority’s website.

If you are a tenant in a local authority home, you may be able to buy your home from the local authority at a discounted rate. There have been several schemes over the years to help you do this, including the:

• Incremental Tenant Purchase Scheme for existing local authority houses, 2016
• Tenant Purchase of Apartments Scheme (TPAS)
• Incremental Purchase Scheme for newly built houses, 2010
• Tenant Purchase Scheme, 1995 (closed to new applicants)

What is the Incremental Tenant Purchase Scheme 2016?

Local authority tenants who qualify for this scheme can buy their homes at a discounted rate from the local authority. The Incremental Tenant Purchase Scheme is for the purchase of existing local authority houses. It opened on 1 January 2016 and replaced the previous Tenant Purchase Scheme 1995.

Do I qualify for the Incremental Tenant Purchase Scheme 2016?

To qualify for this scheme, you must have:

• Been getting social housing support for at least 10 years. If you have a joint tenancy, only 1 tenant needs to meet this condition.
• An annual income of at least €11,000 per year.

How annual income is calculated for the scheme?

Your annual income must be at least €11,000 to qualify for this scheme. This income can be a combination of your gross income from wages and your income from some social welfare payments. You will not qualify if your income is only from social welfare payments, unless you are getting the:

• State Pension (Contributory)
• State Pension (Non-Contributory)
• Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Contributory) Pension
• Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner’s (Non-Contributory) Pension
• Blind Pension
• Invalidity Pension
• Disability Allowance

Several social welfare payments, such as the Working Family Payment and the Rural Social Scheme are considered secondary income. This means they can be included in your annual income, if you have primary income from wages.

Certain social welfare payments are disregarded and are not included when calculating your annual income for this scheme. For example, Child Benefit cannot be included.

You can contact your local authority for the full list of payments that are not considered when calculating your income for this scheme.

Does my social home qualify for the scheme?

Some social homes are excluded from the scheme and are not available for tenants to buy. For example, you cannot buy your social home if it was:

• Designed for an older person to live in
• Provided for someone with a disability, who is moving from institutional care to living in the community
• Designed for a member of the Traveller community to live in
• Provided to your local authority by a developer under Part V arrangements. This is where private housing developers allocate a percentage of their land for social housing.

Your local authority can also decide not to sell your social home to you for other reasons. For example, if they do not think it is the best way to manage their social housing stock in the area.

How much will my home cost and are there charges?

You will get a discount of 40% to 60% off the purchase price of the house, depending on your income. The local authority will put an incremental purchase charge on your house.

This charge is equal to the discount you got on the price of the house. This charge will be reduced by 2% each year, until no charge remains after a specified number of years. This applies unless you resell the house, or break the terms and conditions of the scheme during this specified period (20, 25 or 30 years).

If you sell the house within this specified period, you will have to pay the outstanding incremental charge on the house to the local authority.

This table shows the percentage discount you can get on the purchase price depending on your income and the number of years until the incremental charge ends.

This scheme was introduced under the Housing (Sale of Local Authority Houses) Regulations 2015. The rules of the scheme were amended in 2024 by the Housing (Sale of Local Authority Houses) (Amendment) Regulations 2023.

There is information about the scheme on gov.ie.

Tenant Purchase of Apartments Scheme (TPAS)

The Tenant Purchase of Apartments Scheme (TPAS) allows you to purchase your local authority apartment, if your apartment complex has been set aside for sale to tenants by your local authority. The scheme began on 1 January 2012.

Do I qualify for the Tenant Purchase of Apartments Scheme?

An apartment complex must meet these criteria to be set aside for tenant purchase:

• Have at least 5 apartments (other than community apartments)
• Not contain retail units or apartments designed for older people
• Satisfy criteria set out in Section 51 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009
• At least 65% of the tenants must support the proposal that the complex is made available for tenant purchase. A tenant vote must be held to determine this.

When apartments are being sold in a designated complex, the local authority transfers ownership of the entire complex to an apartment owners’ management company. The management company immediately leases all the apartments back to the authority for continued letting to tenants, who will then have the option of buying them from the authority.

How much will my apartment cost under the Tenant Purchase of Apartments Scheme?

The sale of an apartment follows the same incremental purchase model as the Incremental Tenant Purchase Scheme 2016. There are discounts of 40%, 50% or 60% off the purchase price, depending on household income. There is also an incremental purchase charge applied by the local authority, which reduces by a set amount each year.

There is information about the Tenant Purchase of Apartments Scheme on gov.ie and in the Housing (Tenant Purchase of Apartments) Regulations 2011.

Incremental Purchase Scheme 2010

The Incremental Purchase Scheme for newly built houses allows people who qualify for social housing (including existing social housing tenants) to buy designated newly built houses from a local authority or approved housing body at a discount. It does not apply to apartments, flats or existing local authority houses.

Local authorities will advertise if and when newly built units are available for sale under this scheme. Application forms will be available from your local authority.

Tenant Purchase Scheme 1995

The 1995 scheme is closed for new applicants. If you bought a house under this scheme and want to sell the house within 20 years of the date you bought it, or before you have acquired full ownership, you must get the agreement of the local authority.

If you have been living with a tenant in their local authority home, you may be able to take over the tenancy if the tenant dies.

The rules about inheriting a tenancy are decided by each local authority, and the rules can be different from one local authority to another.

General rules for inheriting a local authority tenancy

Each local authority sets its own rules for how someone can inherit a local authority tenancy.

These rules may include that:

• You have lived in the home for a minimum number of years immediately before the tenant’s death and have declared this to the local authority
• You have been assessed by the local authority for rent purposes for a minimum number of years immediately before the tenant’s death
• You have a housing need and no alternative suitable accommodation
• The home is suitable for your needs

The number of years that you must have lived in the home may differ depending on whether you are an immediate family member of the tenant, or someone else who has lived there.

So, for example, a son or daughter of the tenant may need to have lived in the home for 2 years before the tenant’s death in order to inherit the tenancy, but someone else may need to have lived there for at least 5 years.

You may also need to meet some general criteria set out by your local authority. For example, you may need to show that you have not broken your local authority’s anti-social behaviour policy or a tenancy agreement.

In most cases, you will not be able to inherit the tenancy if the home is either:

• Adapted for someone with a disability
• Designated for older people

If you want to buy your local authority home or inherit a tenancy, you should contact the Housing Department of your local authority.

They will have more information about how to do this, as well as details on how to apply.

Housing associations have their own policies on inheriting a tenancy. If you are a housing association tenant, contact your housing association for information about inheriting a tenancy.