As property prices tumble in the open market, affordable housing is becoming less of a bargain option. With the restrictive terms and conditions that apply to an affordable purchase, some buyers are more inclined to purchase on the open market now that pr ices have dropped significantly.

John O'Connor, chief executive of the Affordable Homes Partnership (AHP), a state agency set up to coordinate and promote the delivery of affordable homes, is aware of the problems with the concept of affordable housing at present. He estimated that between 2,600 and 3,000 affordable housing units were available for sale around the country.

The affordable housing market has been affected by drops of up to 30 per cent in some open market prices. ''That has affected affordable housing in that, in a lot of cases, open market prices got closer to the affordable price," O'Connor said. He said that, in some areas, prices charged for affordable housing still represented discounts of up to 50 per cent on the market rate, but in other areas, the margin was now about 5 per cent. ''It is better to buy on the open market with that price margin," he said.

''We would encourage local authorities to ensure that there is at least a 20 per cent difference between the open market price and the affordable price," he said. Some local authorities - including Dublin City Council and Meath - have already slashed prices in a bid to sell off some of the affordable homes on their books.

However, O'Connor said that unlimited discounting was not realistic. ''There comes a point when you don't want to be overly discounting. It's not a proper use of state money," he said. The AHP was set up in 2005, but O'Connor stressed that its role was one of coordinating, rather than selling.

''Affordable housing is provided and sold by local authorities, and that is still the situation. It is the responsibility of each local authority in the country to provide affordable housing," he said. ''The role of the AHP was to try and bring consistency. Rather than each local authority approaching affordable housing differently, there is now a common approach. We are encouraging all local authorities to put information up on our website, www.affordablehome.ie." Currently, just over 750 properties are available on the affordable home website, with some properties available from 125,000.

However, that does not constitute the full list of available properties. ''That's just the ones that local authorities have placed on the website," said O'Connor. ''Some local authorities work through their lists first and don't put all properties on the website."

The concept of affordable housing is still relatively new. ''The first affordable housing scheme was introduced by the government in 1991 - that was the shared ownership scheme.

It was reasonably successful during the 1990s. ''The first full affordable housing scheme was introduced in 1999,where local authorities would provide housing on their own lands and sell it at a discount. That was the first measure after shared ownership." He said that the 2003 Affordable Housing Initiative allowed the use of state lands and some local authority lands to provide additional affordable housing.

The 2000 Planning Act introduced a requirement that up to 20 percent of units in private developments be available for social and affordable housing, with most local authorities introducing a 50:50 split between the two elements. ''Typically, across the country, particularly in Cork and Dublin and the other major cities, 10 per cent of private developments would be affordable housing. The full percentage of social housing often wasn't taken, but the affordable housing was. That has been the main way of delivering affordable housing in the last few years," he said.

He estimated that about 60 per cent of all affordable housing in the last few years had been provided under Part Vof the 2000 Planning Act. ''In terms of total numbers, the delivery of affordable housing in 2007 was about 3,600 units nationwide. Last year, the figure was about 4,500."

In addition to the stock of properties currently unsold, O'Connor said an additional 1,000 properties or so would come on stream this year. In the budget, the government announced a change in the way affordable housing would be delivered, with the introduction of the government equity scheme.

O'Connor said he expected the new way of selling affordable housing to be introduced by the end of this year. ''Next year, if the market has settled, the government will allow open market purchasing of new or second-hand homes, and will provide a 30 per cent equity stake."

He said that shared ownership would be ''done away with'' at that point. O'Connor said the new scheme would be fairer than the existing selling mechanisms for affordable housing.

''It's to make it a more equitable system. At the moment, different people get different discounts on affordable housing, so it's not fair across the system. ''You also want the possibility of being able to sell the same housing to different people at different prices, so that you can scale the discount up and down, depending on their circumstances. You are still being fair to both because, for the person who pays less, the government will have a bigger share,'' O'Connor said.

''The first thing I'd say to anyone who is looking at buying a house, affordable or otherwise, is that it is a big decision that should not be taken lightly. Once the level of new housing stock reduces, you will get to a point where house prices begin to level off."

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