Interest rate hike bad news for affordable housing

The NI Federation of Housing Association's Chief Executive, Chris Williamson, gave three clear reasons for this:

• it will make it harder for purchasers, especially first time buyers, to afford home ownership;
• more households will therefore apply for social rented and Co-ownership housing, both of which are under-resourced; and
• housing associations will undoubtedly face higher repayments on the private loans they must use to part-finance their new and existing homes. This puts upward pressure on rents.

For further information on the affects on social housing, please call NIFHA on 028 9023 0446 or email: info@nifha.org.

The role of housing associations in Northern Ireland

Housing Associations provide over 30,000 units of accommodation - a quarter all social rented housing in Northern Ireland. Housing Association completion figures for year ending 31 March 07 was 1,625: an increase of 34.5% on the previous financial year 05/06

NIFHA is the umbrella organisation representing, supporting and promoting the activities of the 36 registered and 7 of the non-registered Housing Associations in Northern Ireland.