Eligibility

Eligibility to buy your home

If you have been a tenant of the Housing Executive or another eligible landlord for five years you can apply to buy your home. You can buy all or part of your home.

You may still be able to buy your home even if you haven’t lived there for five years. This may apply, for example, where you have taken over the tenancy after the death of a family member. We call this a “succession”.

Someone - like a husband, wife or civil partner - may have transferred the tenancy to you. We call this a tenancy “assignment”.

If you were a tenant of a housing association, or other eligible landlord you must provide proof of this before we will accept your application to buy your home.

If you are an introductory tenant you cannot apply to buy your home. Your time as an introductory tenant will count towards eligibility.

Any discount that we calculate on the valuation of your home -when you are able to buy - will also include this time.

You can apply to buy your home if you live in a flat or maisonette. When you buy your home you will become a leaseholder.

Each year you will then have to pay a service charge.

This is an estimate of costs for things like:

  • carrying out improvements
  • carrying out repairs
  • caretaking, if applicable
  • our administration costs

We will provide you with an estimated service charge for the first five years after you apply to buy your home. We review the service charge each year

You may not be able to buy your home from us if you live in:

  • a sheltered dwelling
  • a bungalow with fewer than three bedrooms

If you were allocated a one or two bed bungalow on or after 1st September 2002 you will most likely not be able to buy.

If you were allocated a one or two bed bungalow between 1st November 2000 and 31st August 2002 you may be able to buy.

You should contact your Regional Place Shaping Office for further information.

You can apply if you owe us rent, or other charges.

But we will not complete the application until you have cleared all the arrears.

Squatters cannot apply to buy a home from us. 

If you were a squatter and then became a legal tenant, then we will consider your eligibility to buy your home.

The five years required to qualify to buy your home will start from the date that we started your tenancy.

You won’t be able to buy your home if we’re planning legal action to remove you from it because of anti-social behaviour.


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