It should be no surprise that the £15m budget for 2008-9 has already been committed, on some 525 homes, and that the plug has been pulled on new applications. Last year, the NI Co-ownership Housing Association helped a record 900 households - putting up half the purchase price, while applicants pay off the rest in rent - but increased house prices have eaten into their budget.

The tragedy is that just as there is increasing evidence of a downturn in house prices, which would benefit first-time buyers, a vital source of funding has been cut off. People are looking to Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie for more investment in the co-ownership scheme, which has helped 4,000 own their homes since 1978, but her budget has been fixed and pleas to Finance Minister Peter Robinson are unlikely to succeed.

Although Ms Ritchie announced last month that over the next three years £205m would be made available for social housing, it is obvious that this is not enough to meet the demand. The number of low-earning applicants for co-ownership has quadrupled, even as house prices have been rising.

If a ceiling has been reached, the problem should ease in time, as prices come down and more affordable housing comes on the market. It can even be argued that the availability of the co-ownership scheme has helped to keep prices high - and, now that this money has been curtailed, they should be on a downward path.

The only certainty, in difficult times, is that there remains a large pool of low earners and mostly young people who desperately want to get out of renting, at high cost, and into what has been the best long-term investment in the past. When Ms Ritchie announced that co-ownership applicants might in future only have to pay a 25% stake, there were 38,000 on the waiting list for social housing.

Clearly the Stormont executive will have to look at all these figures, in the light of rapidly changing circumstances, and decide what investment it should make, in future, in co-ownership schemes. No-one knows precisely what will happen to the housing market, and what will be the impact of the current stock market roller-coaster ride.

But the more people have a stake in society, through home ownership, the better society as a whole functions. Is £15m a year enough to help the neediest households to get started?