Mortgage from council

loopylulu

Hi,

I’ve done several searches on this already but can’t seem to find much info about it.

I’m looking at mortgages at the moment with the county council, not for an affordable home and I don’t want to do shared ownership as would be wary of trying to buy out the councils half in a few years. On the councils website they have some info on their house purchase loan, but I’m really looking for opinions from anyone who has done this with a council, what interest rates are like and pro’s and con’s please. The main reason I’m looking into this is because I don’t have enough of a deposit to go with a bank mortgage. For a council mortgage I would only need 3% deposit which I have

So any info would be much appreciated please.

Thanks

D3PO

without knowing your circumstances i would think the general concensus here would be that if you cant afford to save a deposit then you cant afford to buy.

SarahMc

Council mortgages are only for affordable houses/shared ownerships and buy outs. You cannot access them for a house on the open market.

gamer

THATS wrong ,the council will give you a mortgage on any private residence thats 4 sale that you can afford ,you must show i earn x amount i can afford the mortgage.I have a permanent job .IT must be in good nick, and not too old they may require a survey of the house or apartment.YOU,ll pay 3 or 4 percent standard variable rate mortgage.RING housing dept wood quay and they,ll send you the info on it.IT may cost a bit more in legal fees ,im not sure ,they, ll tell you bout the process.MY advice start saving now as you still need to pay legal fees and stamp duty . THEY dont really advertise this scheme 4 some reason.MY friend got a council mortgage on a private apartment.I doubt if they would give you a loan on a house that needs major repair ie new floors or roof repairs.THEY may reqire you have x amount in a savings account.AT present the so called affordable apartments are more expensive than a 3bed house in a private estate eg 3bed houses in consilla are 220 on daft.ie.

gurramok

"THEY dont really advertise this scheme"

What scheme is that?

Only one i can think of is the Shared Ownership Scheme and the OP does not want that.

loopylulu

Thanks everyone. Have been onto the council since and have completed the application form, just waiting on employer to fill out income statement and then ready to submit the application.
Gamer is right, the council do offer mortgages (House Purchase Loan) on private properties but the limits were quite low hence very little uptake of the scheme, however houses in my are are now beginning to drop dramatically and I would be able to get a mortgage of about 170K with them now for a house. I'll need a 3% deposit plus legal fees which I have. No stamp duty cos I'm a FTB. I'm currently savng 600pm and paying rent 400pm so will be able to pay a mortgage on 170K. The council told me they take 30% of my net pay per month and this is the max I can pay for a mortgage so they work out from that how much I'm eligible for.
The bad thinga I've found out is that the mortgage protection is quite high at 0.598% and you have to take it out with the council and it takes quite a long time for the council to approve everything but I've got time to wait and keep saving for now

gurramok

Thought that type of loan died years ago Fallen prices have benefited you, great to hear!

Check to make sure that the councils pass on any future interest rate cuts(heck it maybe 2015 for the next one but make sure!) as i think i read somewhere they were the 'shyest' to do so unlike most banks on the recent cuts.

gamer

SO called affordabe housing is advertised and standard corpo house ,flats are avaidable.MOST people dont know if you go to council they will give you a mortgage on any private residence for sale in dublin provided it meets the criteria re price and you can afford the mortgage.IN THEORY you could get a council
loan on a house in killiney if it fits the profile re price versus income level.IF your income is high ie 60k they ,ll prby tell you to go to a bank directly and see can you get a standard mortgage .
THE corpo loan works out a bit more expensive than a standard loan cos the transaction /admin /legal fees are higher.
IT may not suit everyone to buy a so called afffordabe home 4 250k from the council in a market where 3bed houses are going 4 200grand .IT can take em months 4them 2 go thru the paperwork and approve everything.

cocoa123

please anybody explain me how council loans work, what to start with. I asked BOI how much they can give me a mortgage, they said 150K. Of couse it's too low for my area. So I've started looking for info on Home Choice Loan from coco. Coco gives up to €285,000 according to the citizeninfo website. So, I presume the procedure more or less as follows:
0Find a suitable house, agree the sale and pay deposit
0Find a broker and apply to the bank and get rejected
0Apply to another bank and get rejected again
0Fulfill the coco application with the broker
0Broker sends my appl to coco
0Wait for coco decision
0Get the coco loan and progress with the sale

Am I correct?

sKeith

When I went through this process, 'find a suitable house' was after mortgage pre-approval. I got pre-approved on a bogus house, i just picked any house because the bank needed an address. after pre-approval, only then did I really look for a house i wanted.

I think you should have pre-approved mortgage of some form (bank broker council coco whatever), before you try to go sale agreed on any house.

cocoa123

Thanks sKeith. So, you just apply three times on some random house (in range 150-285K) and then start looking for the right house, right? Before applying first time, do I need to agree the sale on the random house? Sorry, have no experience, never bought house in my life just yet.

sKeith

No, you do not need to even view the house, never mind contract the estate agent on the house, definitely don't need to make any offers on the property you are asking for a mortgage on.

sKeith

Btw, only brought once, so no expert. But pre approval was on a house I never viewed or had any interest in, it was just in the right price range and had nothing wrong with it.

cocoa123

great, thanks. Just a couple of points to clarify. It's said "loan up to 285K depends on your income". Is it reasonable to assume that €40k gross would only be eligible for €200k (5 x annual income, bank's limit is x3 only btw), not the full €285k?