I am dismayed at Brian Lenihan’s new measure that we are told will be implemented in the Budget regarding the provision of loans from the Government to ensure first time buyers can get mortgages for properties on which the banks can’t/refused to provide mortgages.
This is an attempt to put a floor under the housing-correction, and it is also a flawed error meddling with a market that is going through a perfectly healthy correction. I am aware that since it only applies to new builds it only benefits members of the CIF and actually acts as a handicap to private seller. If I wish to sell my house I will be at a distinct disadvantage to somebody who has a ‘new house’ to sell, this is a distortion and is of no benefit to the buyer who may in fact not wish to purchase a newly built house.
Effectively the Government has decided to provide loans that the banks won’t, in the past we used to refer to these loans as ‘sub-prime’, this was where a person could get a …