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THE GOVERNMENT has defended plans to extend a scheme that helps first-time buyers, acknowledging that there is a risk that prices may increase.
The First Home scheme is set to be extended to self-builds properties, with Minister Darragh O’Brien fulfilling a commitment he made last year at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis.
The scheme to date has been open to people buying new-build houses and apartments and to renters whose landlords are selling the property in which they live.
It is now being extended to include people who are building their own home, with financial support available for up to 30% of the total cost of the build.
The scheme works by closing the gap between a buyer’s mortgage approval amount and deposit and the cost of a property.
A self-build home is considered to be one that is built on a site by its owner(s), either through direct labour or a fixed contractor, and it must be used as their principal private residence.
Specific maximum costs to be eligible for the scheme are set on a local authority basis.
The Irish Independent reported yesterday that the minister was also considering extending the First Home and Help to Buy schemes to lenders seeking to buy second-hand homes.
However, the move was critiqued by housing expert Rory Hearne and Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for housing Eoin Ó’Broin, who expressed concerns about the potential impact on property prices.
Hearne told RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Claire Byrne yesterday that more research and analysis would need to be provided by the minister on the potential impact that the extension of the scheme may have to the prices of existing homes.
In a statement, Ó’Broin said extending the scheme to second-hand homes would be a “serious mistake” as it would push up prices, accusing the government of “fanning the flames” of house price inflation.
Speaking to reporters on the side of a UN summit in New York, the Taoiseach said that impacts on price is “always a factor we should take into account”.
“We want to help first-time buyers,” Leo Varadkar said.
“We want to give them a bit of an advantage over, say, commercial buyers or landlords buying or even people moving home, but there is a risk that anything you do on the demand side increases price on the supply side.”
First Home scheme
On the move to include self-builds under the scheme, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said it was a “particularly important development” for people who living in more rural locations or who “come from a farming background and who have a site but not the full level of finance they need to build their new home”.
“We designed this scheme to be flexible and to evolve so that it can help as many people as possible,” the minister said in a statement.
“We previously extended it to help renters looking to buy their home from their landlord and now it’s the turn of self-builders.”
- With reporting by Christina Finn in New York
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Sick of hearing about first time buyers..
All we hear is first time buyers…… how about people like me and my family who are not first time buyers but sold years previously to move but the markets crippled us so now still renting but can’t afford to buy a home fir my family. We are definitely priced out of the market because with all the deals the government has fir FIRST TIME BUYERS is pushing up the prices. How about people like me that have paid all our taxes all our like getting screwed and pushed out onto the street HOMELESS. My child has no home
@declan ryan: Correction. Your child has no house. People make a home.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Think this just about tops your list of rubbish unnecessary comments over the last few months.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: you should give inspirational talks to people in tents
@declan ryan: I totally sympathize with you. Most families are in debt. Debt is the new slavery
@Longlin: Well, if you don’t annoy at least some people then your comments are DEFINITELY unnecessary.
@declan ryan: because their time will come in next recession. Hopefully after next election you will have some hopei.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Twit!
So first time buyers, get land for free, off daddy, and get money to build on it, is this a joke?? Land is the most expensive, where I live you can build a big house, 2500 plus sq ft, for around 250,000 complete, not allowing for recent increases, in estates you are paying average 320 for a dog box maybe 80 sq feet so still for those better off its a win win situation.
@colette byrne: Crazy expensive and complicated to build a house. Land or no.
I really sympathise with you all that cannot afford to buy your own houses because of mass immigration, crippling taxation and low pay but at the end of the day we have thousands of migrants coming here every day in need of homes, we need to open our doors, and our wallets, to the world! Sorry I meant open our hearts!
Remember that social welfare all has to be paid for, by you, the Irish working class. Look past your short sighted “I, me, me, mine” perspective and consider that millions of people in Africa that will come here seeking a better life in the coming years and require life-long social welfare, there are also millions of young people from the far reaches of the former USSR and elsewhere looking for a place to live.
Yours sincerely
Irish hoteliers, Charity CEOs on €150k plus, Lefty Lawyers on €500+ per hour, Multinationals seeking cheaper IT workers, etc
@C: Just about reasonable bait. Hit all the right soundbites anyway
Sick of this “Expert”? He has zero qualifications in housing.
@Peter Barnwallace: He’s a professor of Social Policy in Maynooth University. He is absolutely qualified to talk about housing.
@Les Whinin: he’s a failed people before profit candidate, who has zero qualifications in housing
@Peter Barnwallace: your a failed FF candidate so you should be mates
@Les Whinin: He is an expert in socialism,NOT housing.His big idea is to form a state run building company(kinda like the hse)he also stops short of giving any details about costs/numbers needed and anything else.he is rightfully torn a new one on twitter every post he makes.
@uUleRhCu: Why not tho? private sector doesn’t want to build them, no one with a job wants to buy or live in them, but we do need some. Just because it isn’t free market capitalism doesn’t make it communism ffs. Capitalism won! We’re all on board with it but it needs to adapt and modify so a handful of ‘addicts’ don’t take all our money for bragging rights.
@Thesaltyurchin: Do you realise how many builders and trades are needed to build a house.You would also need them in every county…..And you still have not added any new builders to the country they would only move from private to public.I am in the game 30 years and have seen public sector guys working and it’s a disaster.So I can guarantee you we would see less output with way higher costs!……Think about it,a hse style building company(under any government)would be silly.
@Peter Barnwallace: Rory Hearne is a housing expert whilst you were kicked out of FF for breaking their code of discipline, I know who I believe
@uUleRhCu: Dunno, what if it was done with accountability at its core? Like one of my jobs is public and like, I have to work to a schedule, everything is checked. We built a house in the last 5 years, yes it was a nightmare for a long list of reasons, construction was a massive part of that for sure, went through 4 different contractors and finally found a local builder willing to finish what the others had left, the reality is that on a single property the margins are too fine for them to make any real money, so they line up for the large development contracts OR the cushty government ones, either way the Irish people lose out.
@Thesaltyurchin: ‘accountability at its core’…nothing done public ever works that way.Even the large builders like cairns and Sisk only have a small team working for them and sub out all the work to people like me(electrical contractor)they don’t have to micromanage it as we do it ourselves(so we can hopefully make money)margins are tight and we work like cats and dogs to get it done…..This is the opposite to how the public sector work.cheers.
“Or even people moving home” we’ll these lads are consistent at least. Any opportunity to profit from or deter anyone trying to return home after being effectively booted out during the GFC.
Between this and the revenue extorting insane VAT on peoples peronal items at the ports or rentry, the message is clear “stay away”
@RoDoe: Quite hard to see what you’re complaining about here.
No one’s profiting, they’re offering financial help to buy or build a home.
Ah, there it is, a few years AFTER I build. ‘This is the way’
have your say