Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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49. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of approvals granted under the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme; his plans to modify the deposit requirement particularly in circumstances in which applicants can show that they have been paying high rents for an appropriate period of time prior to their application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38905/18]

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 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:

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This information will be 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; 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 which 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.

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.

To support prudential lending and consistency of treatment for borrowers, a Loan to Value ratio of 90% applies to the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan as per the Central Bank's prudential lending guidelines. Therefore, in order to avail of the loan, applicants must have a deposit equivalent to 10% of the market value of the property, and there are no plans to change this requirement.

Applicants must provide bank or similar statements (such as post office, credit union etc.) for a 12-month period immediately prior to making an application, clearly showing a credible and consistent track record of savings. The cash savings should be no less than 3% of the market value of the property. Credit committees may, under certain limited circumstances, permit exceptions to this where the applicant or applicants can demonstrate credible rent payments through their bank account.

For prospective purchasers of newly built properties, the availability of the Help to Buy Initiative for first-time buyers through the Revenue Commissioners may provide additional assistance to prospective applicants for the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan.