Council helps Residents onto the first rung of the housing ladder

Monmouthshire County Council’s Cabinet agreed this week to adopt a more flexible approach to its low cost home ownership scheme honouring the Council’s commitment to providing more low cost housing for local people and helping first time buyers with their first step onto the housing ladder.

Monmouthshire has the highest house prices of not only Wales but the whole UK with the exception of areas such as London, the South East of England, and small isolated pockets such as Poole.

Eleven 2 bedroom dwellings were built in 1989 in Castlewood in Usk.  The Council specifically provided these houses to help people from  the Usk area on lower incomes, who were trying to become home owners.  The scheme gives first time buyers an equity loan of 30% leaving them to raise a mortgage for 70% of the market value of the house.

Over the last decade house prices have increased to the extent that people cannot afford to buy houses even with the 30% Council equity loan.  To resolve this the Council now wishes to extend the equity loan from 30% to 40% or 50% depending on income.  This would make it easier for people on average incomes to purchase a house in Monmouthshire.

Councillor Brian Hood, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Housing said “The problem of affordability for many is huge and this is one of the ways in which we are trying to give help, especially for young, local people.  We are working on other schemes for purchase as well as trying to increase the number of rented properties for those on very low incomes, for example we will be making a number of 2 bed houses available for 50/50 Homebuy on most of the new housing developments planned in Monmouthshire".