Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant explained: the pros and cons of scheme made famous by ‘Room to Improve’ architect Dermot Bannon Interest in vacant and derelict rural houses has increased massively thanks to the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant. In the context of a severe housing shortage, soaring urban rents and the mainstreaming of remote work, the abandoned cottage on a half-acre at the end of a boreen suddenly becomes very attractive as a home, a home […]
First Home Scheme What is the First Home Scheme? The First Home Scheme (FHS) is an affordable housing scheme, which supports you to buy a new home or to build your first home. The FHS is a shared equity scheme. This means that the government and participating banks pay up to 30% of the cost of your new home in return for a stake in the home. If you want, you can buy back the […]
Record high €8.8bn first time buyer mortgages approved in November First-time buyers represented more than 61 per cent of the total volume of mortgages during November. The number of first-time buyers being approved for mortgages hit historic levels at the end of last year, new data from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) has shown. The trend has come amid an overall slowdown in mortgage activity. In November 2023, a total of 4,202 mortgages […]
Central banks will struggle to hold hard line as the economy slows Interest rate cuts are on the cards sooner than anyone thought, but don’t expect a return to the super-low rates of old. Finance Minister Michael McGrath said yesterday he expects a reduction in the European Central Bank’s main borrowing rate – which has been at a euro era high of 4.5pc since September – as early as the first half of next year. […]
Rising mortgage rates mean the savings that homeowners can make by switching their mortgage have doubled in the past six months. Mortgage rates being charged by conventional lenders have breached the 7pc barrier for the first time in over a decade. This means some households may be paying a record of up to €7,000 in extra repayments a year by not switching lenders, according to the latest Irish Independent/Doddl.ie mortgage switching index. At the start […]
The number of first-time buyers (FTBs) approved for a mortgage has hit a record high. Around 30,000 new buyers got the green light from lenders to take on a mortgage in the year to August. It is the first time since the Banking and Payments Federation started compiling mortgage figures in 2011 that so many first-time buyers have been approved. It comes as the asking price for housing rose slightly this month when compared with […]
With grants of up to €96,000 available to renovate vacant properties, a derelict cottage could be transformed into a dream home. Here are nine of the best revival projects on the market. That tumble-down house in the middle of the lower field, where you played hide and seek as a child, could be your new home. Or maybe the old bungalow on the road from the village, covered in ivy and empty for the most […]
Rural dwellers expected to benefit from the extension, says Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien The state scheme that provides funding to help people to purchase their own homes is to be extended to those building their own homes. From this week, the First Home scheme is to be widened to include self-builders who are constructing their first home. The scheme was set up to help first-time buyers to bridge the gap between their mortgage, deposit and […]
