How you can be approved for a mortgage in Ireland despite Central Bank’s rules

It’s no secret that house prices are continuing to rise in Ireland. Because of this, it is more important now than ever to maximize the amount that you are allowed to borrow. The Central Bank’s rules often do not make this process any easier, as many have criticized the Central Bank on its restrictive rules in terms of how much people are allowed to borrow. To be approved for a mortgage in Ireland, you first have to fall within the Central Bank’s income rules. Second, your lender will evaluate your repayment capacity.

First, the Central Bank restricts lenders to loans of 3.5 times the borrowers’ income (joint and single), unless they are granted an exemption. This means that someone making €40,000 can borrow up to €140,000, and a couple making €100,000 combined can borrow up to €350,000, respectively.  However, to be approved for a mortgage, they must also pass a stress test, per Central Bank rules. This tests the ability of the borrower to repay the loan each month should interest rates rise by 2 percent above what the lender …

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Bank Refusal to Loan to First Time Buyers

Current issues with mortgage regulations are preventing many first time buyers who qualify for many exemptions from the harsh Central Bank mortgage rules. Data form Central Bank shows that only 17% of mortgages issued last year included mortgage exemptions. Lenders are entitled to issue exemptions for 20% of the value of the loans they issue to first time buyers. This gap in issuance of exemptions has left first time buyers are left desperate and frustrated by the difficult restrictions placed qualifying for mortgage exemptions. Exemptions are needed but people are not receiving them because of the scope for banks to lend more.

The requirements to qualify for the exemptions are extremely complex. This complexity of the rules of exemption is the reason why banks are unable to understand how many exemptions can be used, which in turn makes banks reluctant to approve exemptions. Qualifying for exemptions allow a minority of higher earning home buyers to borrow more than is allowed.

According to the Independent, it is estimated that banks have only issued income exemptions to 11% of first time …

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The Housing Markets most Pressing Issue

Ireland’s “most pressing issue”…

The lack of housing.

Economist Philip O’Sullivan is reported as saying that tens of thousands more houses need to be completed annually to meet current demand. Why is it that there’s such a shortage of homes?

It is on schedule right now that 21,500 homes were built this year and 24,000 for next year. Though, a good number in the race to meet demand needs, it is nothing near the needed 30-50,000 homes being built to sufficiently meet the demand.

The society of chartered survey of Ireland has predicted that this housing crisis could continue for another 10 years. Paul O’donoghue, a writer for Fora sad that drastic measures need to be taken immediately to push for the development of homes.

With too little of homes available to meet demand, it is the law of supply and demand that says the price of the homes will increase as well. Equilibrium is expected to be reached by 2026.

This, falling in line with the prediction of the housing crisis to continue for nearly …

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Non-credit fuelled booms

There has been an ongoing narrative that the last housing boom (and many others) was only possible due to excessive credit. We have argued for a long time that this is a mistaken interpretation. While credit can make a bad situation worse, just like adding fuel to a flame, it is not the genesis of the problem.

We were pleased to see this view articulated by the Central Bank Governor Philip Lane recently. He stated that “cash buyers of property are limiting the ability of the Central Bank to control house prices through mortgage lending rules” he “singled out cash buyers as one of the key drivers of inflation in the Irish property market. Cash buyers used to account for about 25 per cent of house purchases in Ireland, but since the crash and ensuing credit crunch this figure has risen to 60 per cent“.

This is a point we have been making for years, firstly was that first time buyers are not, and have not been the problem. That was part of why we were specifically …

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First time buyers who don’t buy new homes

First time buyers have been asking ‘what about those of us who are not buying a new home? Why don’t we get any help like the people using help to buy?’. The answer is that you do, at least for the remainder of 2017.

There is still a DIRT relief for first time buyers scheme in action, it started in 2014 and is ongoing until the 31st of December.

The scheme doesn’t help you get a deposit, rather it’s a refund after you buy, see the notes below taken from the Revenue.ie website:

Section 266A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provides for refunds of Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) for first-time buyers who purchase a house or apartment to live in as their home. It also applies to first time buyers who self-build a home to live in.

Who can claim it?

A first-time buyer of a house or apartment who purchases or self-builds a property between 14 October 2014 and 31 December 2017 may be entitled to claim a refund of DIRT.

The first-time buyer must not have …

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Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk 106, featuring Irish Mortgage Brokers

Pat Kenny had Lorcan Sirr from DIT and Karl Deeter from our company on to talk about the property market in particular in light of the changes announced by the Central Bank.

The conversation covered many topics in the market and outlined where so many issues in housing are arising.

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Central Bank statement on mortgage rules review

23 November 2016

Outcome of Review of Mortgage Measures announced

§  Review confirms that the overall framework is appropriate and the measures have contributed to financial and economic stability.

§  Review based on extensive analytical work and public consultation.

§  Refinements to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of the measures.

*** More detail at press conference today at 14:30***

The Central Bank of Ireland today (23 November) announced the outcome of the review of the mortgage measures, following an extensive consultation and evaluation process. The mortgage measures were introduced in February 2015 to enhance the resilience of both borrowers and the banking sector.

The review affirms that the overall framework is appropriate and the measures are contributing to financial and economic stability, reducing the risk of unsustainable lending and borrowing.

Following the review, the framework is broadly unchanged. The 3.5 times ceiling on the loan to income (LTI) ratio remains. Requirements for buy to let borrowers and the exemptions for negative equity mortgage borrowers from the measures also remain unchanged.

The review identified a number of refinements to improve the …

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The unaffordability index of Irish housing

This picture speaks a thousand words and in many cases tens of thousands of earnings that a person would have to have in order to afford an average home in different parts of the country. We used recent data from the Daft report and then broke it down into borrowings and compared that to average wages.

The column after ‘county’ is the average price in that region. If we assume a first time buyer will typically want a 90% mortgage we then look at the amount of earnings they’d need to have in order to get the loan.

The last column is where the real story lies, it compares prices in the area to average wages taken from the CSO.

Anything in a white cell with a minus is very affordable, anything in black means you’d have to be earning above average wage to buy a property in the area.

If the cell has a red background that is showing you where the difference is greater than €10,000.

It’s fairly clear that cities and in some cases …

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