Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 April 2024
304. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Finance what the rules governing the salary multiples for mortgages were in 2007; if he can provide details of the rules in place at that time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14721/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn February 2015 the Central Bank introduced macro-prudential residential mortgage lending measures. These measures introduced, for the first time in the regulatory framework, specified loan to income and loan to value limits on residential mortgage lending.
Subject to a certain level of discretion available to lenders, the current specified loan to income limit is four times gross income for first-time buyers and 3.5 times gross income for second and subsequent buyers.
While mortgage lenders were subject to the relevant provisions of the Consumer Credit Act and the then Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Code in 2007, these did not prescribe any particular salary or other income multiples in relation to mortgage lending.
Any such criteria which applied at that time was, therefore, solely based on that set by the commercial or lending policy decisions of individual lenders.
Subject to the macroprudential lending measures and the other regulatory requirements which currently apply to mortgage lending, it remains a commercial matter for individual lenders to set their own lending criteria and to make their own individual lending decisions.
