The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan is designed to enable credit-worthy first-time buyers to access sustainable mortgage lending to purchase new or second-hand properties in a suitable price range. The scheme is targeted at first-time buyers who have access to an adequate deposit and have the capacity to repay a mortgage, but who are unable to access a mortgage, from a commercial lender, sufficient for them to purchase their first home.
Single applicants for the loan must not be earning greater than €50,000 gross per annum. The combined income of joint applicants must not be greater than €75,000 per annum. This is to ensure the effective targeting of limited resources. There are no set minimum income limits; however, applicants need to demonstrate that they have sufficient borrowing and repayment capacity and must be capable of repaying the mortgage in accordance with the statutory credit policy underpinning the loan. These income limits are unchanged from the previous local authority loan offerings. I have no plans to review them at present.
To support prudential lending and consistency of treatment for borrowers, a Loan to Value ratio of 90% applies to the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan as per the Central Bank's prudential lending guidelines. Therefore, in order to avail of the loan, applicants must have a deposit equivalent to 10% of the market value of the property.
Full details of the loan's eligibility criteria and other information are available on the dedicated Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan website: http://rebuildingirelandhomeloan.ie/. Any person who meets the eligibility criteria may apply for a loan regardless of whether or not they are on the local authority housing list or qualified for social housing support.
In relation to income eligibility criteria for local authority housing, the Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011 prescribe maximum net income limits for each local authority, in different bands according to the area concerned, with income being defined and assessed according to a standard Household Means Policy. The income bands and the authority area assigned to each band are based on an assessment of the income needed to provide for a household's basic needs, plus a comparative analysis of the local rental cost of housing accommodation across the country. As part of the broader social housing reform agenda, a review of income eligibility for social housing supports in each local authority area is currently underway. The Housing Agency is continuing to carry out the detailed statistical work, which will underpin this review, on behalf of my Department.
The review will also have regard to current initiatives being brought forward in terms of affordability and cost rental and will be completed when the impact of these parallel initiatives have been considered.
