A last minute surge of applicants to buy low-cost housing in Southside means a lottery is looking more likely after the deadline closed for hopefuls yesterday afternoon.

Ninety eight homes are up for grabs at $199,000 each and 85 applications have met the qualifying criteria.

However, more than 50 applications have still to be reviewed as potential Harbourside Village home owners rushed to get their applications in before the 4.45 p.m. deadline.

Since the start of the application process last November 2004, 984 forms had been issued but 29 applicants failed to qualify because they did not meet the income requirements. Another 17 applicants withdrew.

Vance Campbell, general manager of Bermuda Housing Corporation which is vetting the applicants, said if the 50-plus applications followed the previous trend then there would be more than 98 applicants making the June 3 lottery more likely.

However, he said: "It's not a matter of if you have 98 more homes you have a lottery.

"You have to look at what type of units. It's quite possible you only end up having a lottery for the two-bed or three-bed homes."

He said there was most interest in the two-bed homes which number more than 50 while three-bed homes, of which there are 30, were also much sought after. He said there was least amount of interest in the eleven four-bed homes.

There are also some bungalows for elderly people available.

All the houses are priced at $199,000 but assessment is based on the size of the household on March 1. Mr. Campbell said: "We do take into consideration circumstances such as if someone was pregnant."

Asked if people would be allowed to trade up if there was insufficient demand for the large houses he said: "A decision would have to be made involving us and Bermuda Homes for People before I could answer that."

He said BHC staff had been working hard on the project while last-minute applicants had suffered a lot of stress.

"People were concerned they might not have sufficient time to get additional information if information was missing.

"They were stressed with the deadline they might lose out on a very good opportunity."

Two weeks ago only 12 valid applications had come in. To qualify applicants must be first-time homebuyers with household incomes between $65,000 and $85,000.

"We have encouraged people not to leave it to the last minute but they did," said Mr. Campbell.

"Whether that is a Bermudian trait or not I cannot say but it has serious consequences in this situation."

He said the banks had been stretched handling all the mortgage applications.

Minister of Works and Engineering and Housing Ashfield DeVent said BHC employees has been extremely busy over the past two days.

He said even as late as yesterday BHC staff had issued a further three applications to people who had indicated they already had the rest of the necessary information in hand.

Minister DeVent said BHC staff had managed to contact most of those who had taken application forms and the office had also fielded numerous calls and offered one-on-one help sessions to applicants.

A further statement will be made on the availability of the units after BHC have completed a thorough review of the applicants.