House puchase loan discontinued?

florita

I heard that the Minister for Housing and Planning Mr. Willie Penrose announced that affordable housing schemes are to be discontinued. Does that include the availability of House purchase loans from the county councils? I applied for one last month and am waiting for them to contact me about my application.

noxqs

The price of "affordable" houses are higher than similar priced units on the open market. It would be financially unsound to purchase from that scheme when a better property can be had on the open market for less money.

The scheme was setup in a time much different from now. The properties available from peeking at their list is in ghost estates/border line ghost estates and the units least desirable. They're also priced at a value that made me laugh out loud while comparing to property prices on daft.ie as of this afternoon.

I assume the entire scheme will be shut down and the units transfer to NAMA. Incidentally, there seem to be no official information verifying that this scheme is shut down as of yet.

Where did you hear this?

ShadowHearth

Even inbubble affordable houses were not very affordable...

Now they are just a joke. Prices way higher then open Market.

Op. Did you checked house prices before applying?

florita

I am not trying to buy an affordable house. I am applying for a house purchase loan from the council to buy a private house. I understand that it is still under the affordable housing scheme. Will this be discontinued? I will try and find the link...

florita

http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/HousingPolicy/News/MainBody,26868,en.htm

And

http://www.affordablehome.ie/

Have a little info about it.

smelltheglove

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Even inbubble affordable houses were not very affordable...

Now they are just a joke. Prices way higher then open Market.

Op. Did you checked house prices before applying?

In bubble I was turned down for affordable for not earning enough even though I saved the max reuired monthly:eek: Got a load from a bank instead, made a nice tidy profit....

Scheme is a joke if you ask me, have you tried for a normal bank mortgage?

florita

Not yet, trying this first because of lower interest rate. If I don't get it will try KBC and a few others.

noxqs

Be careful with interest rates. They may start low but go up to double digits. Read the terms and conditions very closely.

A fixed rate for the next few years wouldn't be a bad choice given the uncertainties currently. Greece will collapse - that is almost certain. How this will affect the bonds market for the Eurozone remains to be seen but it will have an effect on the interest rates. You can always change later to another mortgage product - but being stuck with a variable rate that's climbing is no fun.

foxy06

I heard an interview on the radio the other day about this and from what they said 1 loan was given out in Wicklow in the past 12 months. It is practically impossible to get one as to apply you need to have been refused from a bank or building society but you still have to go through the same criteria with the council.

jc11

Hi Op,

I too am waiting to hear back from DCC for a home loan.

When we met with the mortgage manager a few weeks ago, she told us that the Affordable housing was being scrapped. This is the scheme where they provide u with the house.

The one we're going for is not being scrapped. Its going to replace the Affordable housing scheme. So now people get the mortgage and buy a house on the open market instead of what the council offer.

Just to say, that when we applied for ours, we had already been refused by 2 banks, they were quite strict on this..

Hope this helps you.. best of luck :-)

foxy06

Can I ask what sort of deposit you had when going for the loan with the council? I see from the website you need 3% so if say you went to 2 banks with just 3% as a deposit they would refuse you anyway? Just curious this is something I would be interested in myself.

jc11

yes, we have the 3% which for us is approx 3.5k.. If you apply to a normal bank with only 3% deposit, then its a way of getting your 2 refusals ;-)

florita

Thanks JC, thats good news! I got kind of informal refusals saying that because I didn't have the full deposit I was not eligible for a mortgage with them. So if it doesn't go well with the co co I can apply officially with the deposit required for the banks!

uli84

can someone explain to me what is the advantage of getting a loan via council rather than a bank other than the council accepts lower deposit? thanks,

foxy06

Well they had a fixed rate 5% for 30 years mortgage which wasn't great 5 or 6 years ago but would be handy now if interest rates hit double figures in the future. Other than that not a lot. You would need to ring your local authority though as they may not even be giving them out anymore and if they are the interest rates may have changed