Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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244. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of applications received for the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme; the number of successful applicants; the amount issued to date; the interest rate applied by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38227/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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As with the previous local authority home loan offerings, loan applications under the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan are made directly to the local authority in whose area the property proposed for purchase is situated. My Department does not directly collect information on the number of loan applications received by each local authority.

However, as is currently the case, my Department will continue to publish information on the overall number and value of (i) local authority loan approvals and (ii) local authority loan drawdowns. Information up to Q4 2017 is available on the Department's website at the following link: ,and this information is updated on a quarterly basis as additional data is compiled.

In addition, the Housing Agency provides a central support service which assesses loan applications that are made to the local authorities and makes recommendations to the authorities as to whether loans should be offered to applicants. I have asked the Agency to centrally compile figures on the numbers of applications that it has assessed and the most recent figures, as at the end of August, indicate that the Agency had received a total of 2,628 applications for assessment from local authorities.

Of the 2,628 applications received, 2,074 were deemed to be valid. Of these valid applications, 1,989 had been assessed and 1,024 of these (51%) had been recommended for approval. A breakdown by local authority of the 1,024 applications recommended for approval is set out in the following table.

Each local authority must have in place a credit committee and it is a matter for the committee to make the decision on applications for loans, in accordance with the regulations, having regard to the recommendations made by the Housing Agency.

The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan offers three interest rate products:

- 2% fixed for up to 25 years (APR 2.02%)*,

- 2.25% fixed for up to 30 years (APR 2.27%)*, and

- 2.30% variable (subject to fluctuation) for up to 30 years (APR 2.32%)*

Applicants have the option to choose from between these three rates. Mortgage rates are set on the date of drawdown of the loan. The fixed rates are set for all loans drawn down from the first tranche of €200m of fixed-rate financing secured by the Housing Finance Agency. Rates for further tranches may be subject to change and are dependant on the overall rates secured for each tranche.