Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 February 2018
87. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the criteria that local authorities will apply in operating the new home loan scheme announced under Rebuilding Ireland; the funding available for this scheme; the projected number of loans that will be issued under the scheme over the next five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9719/18]
View answerAs with the previous local authority home loan offerings, careful attention has been given to the terms and conditions that apply to the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan, which are set out in the Housing (Rebuilding Ireland Home Loans) Regulations 2018. Decisions on all loan applications must be made in accordance with the applicable statutory Credit Policy in order to ensure lending prudence and to assist local authorities across the sector to engage consistently in responsible mortgage lending.
Full details of the loan's eligibility criteria and other information is available from the dedicated Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan website at the following link http://rebuildingirelandhomeloan.ie/.
Funding of €200 million for the new Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan has been raised by the Housing Finance Agency (HFA) from a variety of sources, on a fixed rate basis for periods out to thirty years maturity. Based on the pricing achieved, local authorities can offer a first tranche of fixed-rate annuity finance to eligible borrowers at rates of 2.0% and 2.25% per annum, for terms of up to twenty five and thirty years respectively, up to an aggregate maximum of €200 million. As the available funding under the first tranche reduces towards €50 million, the HFA will access new funding at the prevailing rates in the market and will make available a second tranche to local authorities, which will be accessed once the first tranche is fully advanced.
This funding is not allocated to individual local authorities but rather will be drawn down by local authorities from the HFA to match their lending under the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan. It is not possible to estimate the number of fixed rate loans that will be drawn down under this loan. As is currently the case, my Department will continue to publish information on the overall number and value of local authority loans on its website.
