Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 170: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if legislation is in place to allow tenants in an affordable housing scheme (details supplied) in Dublin 8 go to a 100% mortgage with Dublin City Council. [21928/09]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Housing loans are provided by local authorities for households who wish to build or purchase their own home, including affordable housing purchasers and local authority tenants who wish to purchase under the tenant purchase scheme, but cannot access finance from private institutions. To ensure effective targeting of resources to support households most in need, income limits are applied, distinguishing between single and dual income households. A maximum loan limit is also applied and local authorities, in assessing loan applications, take account of the household's ability to finance the loan based on their net household income.

I recently introduced new regulations to underpin local authority lending. The Housing (Local Authority Loans) Regulations 2009 replace the previous regulations, providing for a new loan limit of €220,000 and maximum earnings of €75,000 in the case of joint applicants and €50,000 for single applicants. The previous maximum loan to value ratio of 97% still applies.

The Regulations also provide for the introduction of a formal credit policy to ensure prudence and consistency of approach for all local authority mortgage lending.