BY MICHAEL BRESLIN
Insufficient funds, inability to afford the prices and not being able to live where one prefers have contributed to 'housing stress' here, according to the Fermanagh District Housing Plan for the current year.The term refers to an applicant with at least 30 points.
The Report's authors state that, despite falling house prices, first time buyers were experiencing severe difficulties due to the linkage between prices and income.
"The prospects for the housing market in 2009 are not optimistic. Rising unemployment, increased levels of debt and a much tighter credit environment combine to ensure that there will continue to be downward pressure on the housing market.
"There are a high number of people employed in the low paid sectors, such as manufacturing, hospitality and agriculture.
"This is a worrying feature, given the decline in these sectors. Also of concern is that modernisation of public services has resulted in a large number of public sector jobs being transferred out of Fermanagh."
In fact, Fermanagh, out of the 26 local government districts, is the 11th most deprived area, with four of its wards - Devenish (Enniskillen), Roslea, Newtownbutler and Lisnaskea - in the Top Ten. And, it's due to this high level of income deprivation that households have found it difficult to get on to the housing ladder - despite a significant drop in house prices.
The Report notes that demand for social (public) housing had been steadily increasing between 2004-07, although the numbers on the waiting list fell by nine per cent last year.
It notes 'a considerable increase' in the size of the private rented market which now makes up 17.1 per cent of the housing market in the county and, at the same time, a drop of 11.5 per cent in the social housing sector.
Why?
The demand, the authors of the Report suggest, reflects the difficulties facing first-time buyers in affording to buy their own home, tighter lending controls and the fact that potential tenants cannot find social housing in their preferred locations.
Housing Benefit continues to play an important role in supporting the private rented sector, with the number of households in this sector receiving Benefit increasing from 1,690 in March, 2005 to 1,949 in March this year.
"The number of such households has been steady at around 1,670 since 2005, and the 2008 figure represents a significant change."
Interestingly, some 474 dwellings of the 22,201 registered in County Fermanagh in the 2001 Census are 'second/holiday homes', mostly in the Belleek/Boa Island area.
The Reports states that these have contributed to the increased house prices prevalent in 2006, and impacted on people's ability to afford.
The number of private homes in Fermanagh built last year (463) was a 30 per cent drop on the 2007 figure (667) which, in turn, contrasts with the 788 'new builds' in the private sector in 2006.
Based on a lower volume of sales last year, the average price of a private home at the end of last year, £178,510 was 19.6 per cent down on the 2007 figure of £221.992.
Normally, the Housing Executive could look to house sales within the public housing sector to swell its budget, but those days are over.
Last year, it sold six houses at an average valuation of £98,500 less a £22,783 discount. Those six compare with 43 homes sold in 2008, 69 in 2007, 86 in 2006 and 88 in 2005.
Ironically, given all these gloomy statistics, the number of people who went into the Housing Executive offices in Enniskillen and told staff, 'I am homeless', had fallen by 25 per cent in March this year.
However, supply is failing to meet demand, with 546 homes required by 2013 of which 250 are needed in Enniskillen, 85 in Lisnaskea and Irvinestown, and 211 in the villages.
In Enniskillen, the waiting list has increased by 111. The groupings with the greatest number in 'housing stress' at December last year were single persons followed by small families.
Some 75 homes are needed in Lisnaskea where there is a waiting list of 19. Again, the same groupings suffer 'housing stress'. In Irvinestown, 15 homes are needed, there is a waiting list of 12 and the same groupings show 'housing stress'.
