Luck of the draw for home owners

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/8080286.stm

Version 0 of 1.

The number of people seeking homes has led to a Northern Ireland housing body changing its allocation system.

The Northern Ireland Co-ownership Association will allocate houses by ballot in a departure from its first-come first-served system.

Co-ownership helps people who cannot afford to buy their own home outright get onto the property ladder.

Sixty-five applicants will be selected by ballot later to be given a chance for a new home from this month's quota.

Association chief executive Alan Crowe, said: "An independent adjudicator will make the draw with applications being drawn at random until there are sufficient complete applications to fill the quota."

Mr Crowe said the number of potential first-time buyers applying through co-ownership far exceeded the number houses of available on the scheme.

"This level of interest resulted in people queuing overnight at the beginning of May to be the first to lodge an application for that month's applications quota," he said.

"We are understandably concerned at the health and safety implications for people queuing outside overnight for a prolonged period of time and have therefore introduced a draw system for the June applications quota."

The Co-Ownership Housing Association aims to provide 500 homes from April 2009 until March 20010.