Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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307. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when eligibility thresholds for Rebuilding Ireland home loans are likely to be raised in view of the fact that at the present level it is not possible for applicants to purchase a home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46417/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan is targeted at first-time buyers who wish to own their own home, have access to an adequate deposit and have the capacity to repay a mortgage, but who are unable to access a mortgage sufficient for them to purchase their first home. As with the previous local authority loan offerings, the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan is available to first-time buyers only.

I assume the Deputy is referring to the thresholds for which the maximum market value for properties being purchased under the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan must not be exceeded. These vary depending on the county in which the property is located, with a maximum purchase price of €320,000 applicable for properties in counties Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow, and a maximum purchase price of €250,000 for the rest of the country.

The property price limits for eligible properties are in place for a number of reasons, including the need to target limited resources most effectively. As one of the main policy aims of the scheme is to enable low-income individuals to access the finance necessary to purchase their own home, there are also restrictions on the maximum level of income that applicants can have. Given the need to prevent potential applicants from borrowing more funds than would be financially sustainable for them to do so, the property price limits are linked to these income limits, as increasing the maximum amount that applicants could borrow under the scheme could have negative consequences for the long-term financial position of both the borrower and the Exchequer. As such, and also considering that the scheme is less than a year old, I have no plans to raise these limits.