Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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204. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the total allocation for local authority home loan in each of the years from 2016 to 2022 and the total drawdown in each year including to date in 2022, in tabular form. [49338/22]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will review the local authority home loan and in particular the income eligibility limits, the means test criteria, the maximum loan amounts and the administrative process for accessing and deciding on the loans. [49340/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 204 and 206 together.

The Local Authority Home Loan is a Government backed mortgage scheme for those on modest or low incomes who cannot get sufficient funding from commercial banks to purchase or build a home. It has been available nationwide from local authorities since 4 January 2022 for first-time buyers and fresh start applicants. As of 4 January 2022, no new Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan applications are being accepted, although applications already in process are being honoured.

The loan can be used both for new and second-hand properties, or to self-build. It also includes the purchase of homes through State schemes such as the Tenant Purchase Scheme and Affordable Housing Schemes, with the exception of the First Home Scheme.

Single applicants for properties in counties Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Louth, Meath or Wicklow must not be earning greater than €65,000 annual gross income or €50,000 annual gross income for properties in all other counties. Joint applicants must not be earning greater than €75,000 annual gross income in all counties.

The maximum market values of the property that can be purchased or self-built are €320,000 in the counties of Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow and €250,000 in the rest of the country. This limits the amount that can be borrowed to no more than €288,000 in the counties Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow and no more than €225,000 in the rest of the country.

The Housing Agency provides a central support service that assesses applications for both the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan and the Local Authority Home Loan on behalf of local authorities and makes recommendations to the authorities to approve or refuse applications.

The final decision on applications is a matter for the relevant local authority. Decisions on all housing loan applications must be made in accordance with the Regulations establishing the scheme and the credit policy that underpins the scheme, in order to ensure prudence and consistency in approaches in the best interests of both borrowers and the lending local authority.

The eligibility criteria and lending processes for the Local Authority Home Loan are kept under review. It should be noted that the income ceiling for single applicants wishing to buy a home in the Greater Dublin Area, Cork and Galway was raised from €50,000 (in the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan) to €65,000 upon the introduction of the Local Authority Home Loan.

The total national allocations for the Local Authority Home Loan and its predecessor the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan from 2018 to 2022 are set out in the below table. For clarity, these amounts represent the maximum that local authorities are allowed to lend under the schemes. In this respect, it should be noted that the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan and the Local Authority Home Loan are demand driven schemes and the actual drawdowns are dependent upon market activity.

*Allocations for 2018 and 2019 were combined.

**The 2022 allocation covers both schemes while the prior years are for Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan only.

My Department regularly publishes information on the number and value of (i) local authority loan approvals and (ii) local authority loan drawdowns. Local authority approval means that an official letter of offer has been sent to a borrower (and therefore relates to a specific property and loan amount).

Information on drawdowns, approvals, average drawdowns, and average approvals for both the LAHL and RIHL up to Q1 2022 is available at the following link, which will be updated as soon as figures are available:

www.gov.ie/en/collection/42d2f-local-authority-loan-activity/#local-authority-loans-approvedpaid