Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 July 2020
125. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the number of local authority Rebuilding Ireland loans approved in each of the past three years; the extent to which he expects such approvals to increase over the course of the next three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17915/20]
View answerThe Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan continues to support credit worthy first time buyers who are unable to secure commercial mortgages to purchase their own homes. Additional funding for new lending of up to €210 million has been secured to ensure the continuation of the RIHL in 2020, and details of 2020 allocations have been communicated to all 31 local authorities. The new Programme for Government contains a commitment to expand the Rebuilding Ireland Home loan, and any increase in approvals will be contingent on future levels of credit-worthy applications.
My Department publishes information on the overall number and value of (i) local authority loan approvals and (ii) local authority loan drawdowns. Local authority approval means that an official letter of offer has been sent to a borrower (and therefore relates to a specific property and loan amount).
Information on the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan for 2019, including the number and value of mortgage approvals and drawdowns, as well as average loan amounts, are available on my Department's website at the following link:
https://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/statistics/house-prices-loans-and-profile-borrowers/local-authority-loan-activity.
Information on the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan for 2018 is also available through this link and can be found under local authority loans approved and local authority loans paid; however, these figures are not detailed by loan type. My Department recently issued data requests for the first two quarters of 2020 and more up to date figures will be made available in due course, as additional data is compiled.
