New €400m ‘First Home Scheme’ to help first-time buyers

A new Government scheme, set up to make it easier for first-time buyers to afford a new build home, has opened for business.

The €400m ‘First Home’, a new scheme set up to make it easier for First-Time Buyers to afford a new build home as part of the Government’s Housing for All strategy, has opened for business today.

The €400 million affordable purchase scheme, designed in conjunction with mortgage providers and Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), aims to bridge an existing affordability gap by providing buyers with part of the purchase price for their home, in return for the Scheme taking a minority equity stake.

The maximum stake that the Scheme will take is 20pc if the buyer is also availing of the Government’s separate Help to Buy scheme, and 30pc, if Help to Buy, is not used.

Applications can be made online at www.firsthomescheme.ie . The First Home Scheme application process runs in parallel with the mortgage application process (i.e. mortgage applications should continue to be made separately through participating lenders).

The scheme is available initially to First-Time Buyers and other qualifying homebuyers who are taking out mortgages from AIB (including its EBS and Haven Mortgages businesses), Bank of Ireland, or Permanent TSB. Other mortgage providers may join the scheme in the coming months.

It is open to buyers of newly-built houses and apartments in private developments.

Darragh O’Brien TD, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, said, “This brand new scheme will literally open the door for many First-Time Buyers. Affordability and the chance to buy a home is very much at the centre of this Government’s housing policy. In Housing for All, our new housing plan for Ireland, we committed to establishing a scheme, in partnership with participating mortgage lenders, which would make home ownership easier for those who were finding that aspiration just out of reach.

“This Government is working to give young and not so young people a real chance to buy their own home. Today’s announcement is another step in that direction.”

Michael Broderick, the interim CEO of the First Home Scheme, said, “This is an exciting scheme to help First-Time Buyers realise their ambition of buying a home. It will help close the affordability gap while ensuring people borrow at a level that reflects their individual financial circumstances.

Brian Hayes, CEO of Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, said:

“We are delighted to support this ground-breaking partnership between the State and the participating lenders to make it easier for First-Time Buyers to own their own home.

We think this scheme is capable of making a real difference for the people who can benefit from it and we look forward to seeing it achieve its aims in the months and years ahead.”

The scheme will provide financial support to borrowers and facilitate them in purchasing a new home that they could not otherwise do after combining their available mortgage and deposit.

By bridging the gap between the available mortgage, deposit and the price of the new home, the scheme will make the prospect of home ownership possible for many for the first time.

The scheme is making €400 million available, to facilitate the purchase of up to 8,000 homes over a 5-year period, subject to demand.

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