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A NEW GRANT scheme for first-time buyers is set to be introduced in the upcoming budget as part of efforts to ease the housing crisis.
Housing Minister Simon Coveney confirmed the news at the Fine Gael think-in yesterday saying that first-time buyers are being “locked out of the market”.
Coveney said the grant would take the form of a tax rebate but that the amount and the details are still being worked out.
In Fianna Fáil’s pre-election manifesto, the opposition party had also suggested helping first-time buyers in their ability to pay by suggesting a savings top-up of up to €10,000 for couples.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Coveney said “specific supports” for first-time buyers are needed.
“The people who are most exposed in relation to the house purchase market are first-time buyers,” the minister said.
“About 55% of people who buy homes are first-time buyers and the majority of those, particularly in Dublin and Cork where there’s huge demand, are simply locked out of the market.”
There aren’t houses being built for them and there aren’t houses being built at a price that they can afford. So we need to change that and there are only really two ways we can do that. The first is to reduce the price of houses, the other is to increase the capacity to buy of first-time buyers and I think there’ll be a bit of both.
The minister went on to say that this will include some kind of first-time buyers grant.
“I think it will be something along the lines of a first-time buyers grant, effectively through the tax system through a tax rebate and the extent of that and the means through which it is being done is being worked out,” he said.
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And every developer in the country increases asking prices by €10,000…
More like 20000 because they know the government will be daft enough to back it
They’re good to increase demand when supply is the problem. Brilliant. Might as well just hand tax payers money straight over to the developers.
Isn’t that the point? Theyre the best of buddies!
Crazy. And no conflict of interest there at all.
Anyone watch worlds busiest city on BBC 2 last night..where New York tackled the problem of residents being priced out of the market..by ..wait for it..building housing..that was only available to lower income families..crazy idea.
Yes….imagine answering massive demand with….supply!!!
The shock of it!!!
Didn’t we already allow people to buy houses that couldn’t afford them? How did it work out the first time?
Very well thank you. I’m in a 7-bed island retreat with my own boat and a lad to answer my phone calls. The dole doesn’t cover it tho so who can I blame for that?
People rent should be taking into consideration when buying a house. I’ve been told I can’t afford a mortgage as I don’t have the deposit. Yet people in the place around me who have a mortgage pay 300 less a month than me. How am I supposed to save a deposit when I’m paying so much more?
Did the lad type this lame ass joke for you too Fozz?
@Roy – if you don’t have enough disposable income to save up a deposit, you shouldn’t be allowed to get a mortgage. Having a deposit shows 2 things – your capacity to save, and that you have disposable income, which means your mortgage will still be affordable if you lose your job and take a lesser paying role.
We’ve been here before – it ended up in a disaster & a recession. Idiots never learn.
Roy, I have the deposit and my mortgage would have been less than twice my salary, and I was still turned down after a stress test. That was 6 months ago. My rent has almost doubled since but I’m hoping this’ll prove my ability to repay.
Can’t afford it?? MY rent is twice what I would be paying for a mortgage on the houses we are looking to buy here in Cork. But the crippling rent is preventing us from getting a deposit together quick enough. The price of houses is rising faster than we can save. I don’t want a mansion, I want a 3 bed house where I can raise a family, HArdly too much to ask. I get a yearly bonus in work that could bump the savings each year but the government take more than half of it every time. As a childless working married couple we don’t get much benefit from all the tax we pay, A bit of help getting a mortgage wouldn’t be asking too much.
Then move home & save – like thousands of others have done.
Great Idea, My Parents live in Fuerteventura and I work in Cork.
Lather rinse and repeat…Always repeat!
Any sniff of an incentive will just push asking prices up! Especially on the new homes front.
The really frustrating thing about this whole debate is it completely fails to address the bulk of people in their 20′s-40′s, with good jobs renting privately. Its all aimed towards the social housing side of things. What about the family with 2 adults, 2 kids. One earner on say 40k, other partner is a stay at home mother. So family takes in around say 1200 a fortnight in wages, no social welfare coming in bar childrens benefit. So they are not council tenants, they are not on the housing list. But, all their wages are going towards their rent, so they cant save.
All you hear is social housing social housing social housing….what about the 40k earner who lives in private rented accom who cant save a deposit….??
In short, f–k them!
Just keep struggling along for the next 30 years and then do us all a favour and die quickly, because the last thing we need is you being a drain on the health system.
Oh, and if you want those kids to get and education you better start saving!
Yep
If your out of work and on the dole and housing list, we will do all we can for you to get you a social house. Fr Peter will talk about poor you on the Vinny B show, Claire Daly will cry tears for you in the Dail, but, if your a sucker out working trying to raise kids and live in a decent area to raise those kids…….your on your own jack……….tough sh*t! If you cant save the deposit while renting privately, then…..shame on you….shame on you…….loser……
Its all about the SW recipients and f**k the rest of ye……
What are ye ranting about – the article is about taxpayers and tax rebates. Sure how could anyone on the dole get a mortgage, let alone a tax refund?
They dont need mortgages for a council house! They will be looked after but the working struggling working family in private rented accom are abandoned
Not just those in rented accommodation. There are roughly 300,000 families being screwed by the banks charging inflated mortgage interest rates. Nothing can be done though.
@Liam Dunne: tell me about it, a full third of my income goes on rent, just been refused a mortgage because, even though I have a deposit, I have no history of saving. I can afford the mortgage, I can afford the life insurance and all the fees and whatever else. But because I didn’t save my own deposit, I’ve been told no.
Didn’t they try this before? Just before property prices went through the roof and all the property developers made a fortune, which enabled them to hand over countless brown envelopes to the very people who come up with the idea in the first place!
So hard to get a property on your own. Every time there is an incentive though means prices again go up…
Isn’t this only for new builds? So doesn’t help anyone buying a second hand home. More like it helps developers sell new houses than something genuinely for first-time buyers.
I just don’t see the logic behind this other than as a subsidy to developers. I despair
So they’re back to calling it a “ladder” again are they? The vast majority of people that fell for that the first time are still on the first rung – myself included, and I’ll have to stay there. Others less fortunate had the ladder tipped over while they were still on it. Ladder my h0le.
F off with yer ladder. A house is either suitable to your present needs or not.
Why is everyone so surprised that FG’s answer to the housing shortage is one that will mean that developers will make more money, and not one that will, in any way, solve the problem of not enough houses being built?
Is there really such a thing as a housing ladder?..Apart from apartment dwellers who might love a house when kids come along..don’t the vast majority buy a house to raise a family..put down roots and live there for life..do people actually keep buying and moving?
Regressive move.
How about fixing the rental market so people have a real alternative to climbing on the rickity unstable property ladder? Build more houses and regulate the rental sector properly.
In previous years the only thing that happened with the grant or any other financial support for first time buyers it was merely factored in to the price of the house therefore no benefit to buyers or taxpayers! Banks, developer’s and builders were the beneficiaries.
FFS more interfering in the property market by this government how about making it easier for builders to get planning permission build more housing units especially social and affordable and prices will come down to an affordable level and tax foreign companies and individuals who are non resident on their rental income !
There is nothing to be gained by making it easier for ‘johney come lately’ builders/developers to build more ghost housing estates. Planning permissions need to be controlled and a bond paid over to guarantee they finish the works as specified. They have already been showed to be a pack of crooks by ripping people off with their tacky workmanship and buying off the plans.
When will we see some decent builders in this country who pride themselves on their workmanship and have a good reputation among buyers.
When I bought we had to pay a large amount of stamp duty which we couldn’t get a loan for. While the 20% rule is being complained about we were in a similar situation for raising funds. We then got property tax that is true double taxation
This is an indirect way of incentivising developers to build, hard to see how it does much for buyers
I fail to see how building houses during a housing supply crisis is a bad thing…?
Nor do I. Problem no.1 of the current crisis is getting building going. Developers say the building costs are too high to sell affordable homes and I actually believe them. I just don’t like the deception of this policy, masquerading as a buyer friendly scheme when in practice, it’s for the developers.
Back in 2006-2007 before the recession the government set a figure for first time buyers so that they wouldn’t pay stamp duty on a home under €317500. Once that figure was known by developers and auctioneers every property that might attract a first time buyer suddenly and mysteriously shot up to around €317000. Now that they’ve announced a €10000 grant you can 100% expect property prices to rise by the same amount immediately
Sure thats where everyone needs to go…onto that great big property ladder into a lifetime of debt and profit creation for wholesale Banking Corporates&Land Owners!! Sure we never had this before so we might as well give it a go…..oh wait actually….
The ladder is broken
Defeats the purpose of the Central banks measures to curb ,house price inflation.
Property Ladder … a fictional game, in Ireland we do Property Snakes and Ladders when government intervention causes more bubbles and crashes.
Will we ever learn
STOP wasting taxpayers hard earned cash !
Deja vu. Same thing again. Just build. Give a supply.
Build more houses and keep building them until the supply outstrips the demand.
Then and only then will the housing market get to where it should be.
We need to stop seeing housing as a pension fund or a money making commodity.
What is it with politicians stating the bleedin’ obvious like they are some sort of genius messiah
Why are we giving free money to people who can and or saving surely we need to fix the homeless plight first l don’t think homeless people are planning to buy houses any time soon or is this all about profit for banks
Been here before ……as usual no brave/bold move …..reason …..if it isn’t simple , people won’t pay attention and therefore no votes in it .
Awful idea. Have we learned nothing? The developers/builders lobby still have way too much say in the policy making of this country! It’s like the last twenty years never happened.
That’s sound good I hope they do help ppl with there morgatge as I’m tired of paying rent please help us . enough is enough
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