Sir, – Joanne Hunt's article "Moving to a right-sized home: What are your options?" (Business, March 2nd) pointed out that 85 per cent of people over 65 own their own homes and then gave an interesting account of sheltered housing options which were all basically rental properties, some with complex financial arrangements. I understand there are very few opportunities in Ireland to buy sheltered accommodation and suspect that a proportion of older people would be happy to sell family homes if they could buy sheltered accommodation.
My elderly mother spent several happy years in sheltered housing run by a charitable organisation in England. She bought 80 per cent equity in the property and paid a service charge. On her death the property was sold to someone qualified (by age or disability) to live there and 20 per cent of the sale price was returned to the charity.
There are a large number of charitable and commercial organisations running purchase schemes for sheltered accommodation in England. If similar schemes were encouraged in Ireland, the housing shortage might be eased. – Yours, etc,
IRENE ALLEN,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.