ONE of Winchester's pioneering affordable housing schemes has become too expensive for low-income families.

Now legal chiefs at Winchester City Council have changed the rules on who can buy a share in the £150,000 properties at Mons Block at Peninsula Barracks.

The redeveloped block is a so-called shared equity scheme in which buyers can purchase 75 per cent of a property, while the remaining 25 per cent is held by a housing association.

When the owner wants to sell, the council currently identifies a new prospective buyer from their waiting list so that the flat can be sold on as affordable housing.

However, in a report presented to Winchester City Council this week, the authors warned that the pool of potential purchasers was drying up because even the affordable homes in the city were now too expensive.

The report says: "The current value of the flats in the Mons Block is approximately £150,000 and the increase in value since purchase has meant that they are increasingly becoming unaffordable to those in housing need."

It adds: "Because of the rise in values, the pool of potential purchasers in the Winchester town wards is reducing."

The report continues that the issue is not just affecting potential buyers but sellers too, who are now finding it increasingly hard to get a purchaser.

Mortgage companies have also announced that they are not willing to lend cash to people locked into these agreements.

Now the council's legal chiefs have agreed to vary rules regarding selling on shared equity properties so that people living outside the city will be eligible to buy them as well as those on the council's housing waiting list.

A Winchester Housing Group spokesman, which runs 18 flats in Mons Block, said more homes needed to be built across the district.

However, Alan Weeks, chairman of the Winchester Residents' Association, said if people could not afford to get on the property ladder in Winchester then they should look to buy in places like Eastleigh or Romsey, where prices are cheaper.