asked the Minister for the Environment if, in view of the substantial increase in housing costs, he will introduce a system of subsidised loans to encourage private housing.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Private Housing Subsidised Loans.
25.
I would direct the Deputy's attention to the low rise mortgage scheme under which subsidised loans are made available to tenants and potential tenants of local authority houses, and also to the house-purchase loans schemes administered by housing authorities which are financed in large measure by State funds advanced to the authorities at an interest rate lower than the rate at which the money is raised by the State. I would also like to make the point that at the end of June 1979, the major lending agencies had more than 29,000 applications for housing loans on hand. This is the highest ever recorded total of applications on hands since statistics were first compiled more than ten years ago. I do not feel, therefore, that further encouragement is needed to boost private housing.
The reason being that they cannot get money from the banks.
Will not the Minister accept that the present low rise mortgage loan system is exceptionally limited in its application? In view of the sharp increase in the cost of houses and the problems of applicants to get money to provide homes, would it not be advisable from the economic point of view to make money available at the same rate as that applying to low rise mortgages to applicants who would qualify for council houses in order to remove them from the housing lists? Would it not help the situation if we tried to get as many people as possible to provide their own homes?
The low rise mortgage purchase scheme was very slow to take off. It was introduced in 1976 but since then the demand has grown rapidly. Already approximately 1,400 loans costing a total of £11 million have been made.
That is on a national basis?
Yes. This scheme is growing rapidly in popularity.
Would not the Minister accept that £9,000 is about 50 per cent of the cost of a house and site? Under the council's scheme the repayments in respect of such a house would be about £23 a week over a 30-year period. Surely the Minister will agree that it is almost impossible for young couples to afford this kind of repayment even though the amount of the loan will be only half the cost of the house.
Let me repeat that this scheme is growing in popularity even at the present rate. The levels are reviewed from time to time with regard to the amount of loan granted.
The problem is that of qualifying for the loan. I would ask the Minister to ease the qualifications.
I did that in the past eight months.
The remaining questions will appear on next Tuesday's Order Paper.