First Time Buyers

faber11

Hi,

Just wondering if there might be any grants available for a first time house buyer? My sister is currently buying a house that's over 100 years old and I was wondering if there are any subsidies or grants available for either first time buyers or buyers of older houses...

Any help would be sincerely appreciated. :-)

realitykeeper

Darragh O`Brien said this week that an increase in the cost of new builds impacts first time buyers in particular. It is worth examining why this is so. Could it have anything to do with the fact that government parties inflated the price of existing housing stock by 200 billion euro, with the money they borrowed since 2008?

Making existing housing stock affordable is as simple as pricking the bubble they deliberately inflated with borrowed money. No need for grants or handouts thank you very much, just deflate existing housing stock to the tune of 200 billion euro by taxing it (a lot!) and using the proceeds to repay that 200 billion.

First time buyers were school children during the mania of the celtic tiger so I recommend exempting them from the punitive property taxes you will need to impose. You could also offer owners of existing properties the chance to start over in a tax emempt new home by exempting new builds from the tax also. This would create a market driven construction boom and many thousands of jobs.

The first house my parents bought was not new. The same can be said of all my uncles and aunts, and grandparents. In an unmanipulated market, first time buyers are not any more likely to buy a new house than anyone else.

Darkglasses

Help to Buy (only for new builds), Croi Conaithe (only for vacant properties) and the Local Authority Home Loan (Council loan scheme for FTBs) are the main assists.

There's also the First Home Scheme, but I'd hesitate recommending that to almost anyone.

antoinolachtnai

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120746147#Comment_120746147

How would deflating prices result in extra homes becoming available?

realitykeeper

I didn`t say deflating house prices would result in extra homes. I said a construction boom would result in extra homes. Deflating house prices would make existing houses affordable.

antoinolachtnai

If nominal prices fell people would just hold and never sell.

What would affordable even mean if there were no existing stock available to purchase?

Villa05

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120755711#Comment_120755711

Interesting theory, have you considered that people may be holding onto to under utilised property because it's value is increasing.

If its value was falling, with saving rates increasing, would they still hold onto it?

It doesn't sound smart

antoinolachtnai

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120764137#Comment_120764137

This didn’t happen in 2008-2013. People just stopped selling unless they were in serious trouble and absolutely had to sell. The volume went away.

Villa05

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120764192#Comment_120764192

The banks were not lending for 3 of those years, that's not an issue this time round.

Volume was removed from the market by the state

Over 10 years of an uptrend in price with rates starting to increase sounds like a good time (if not a little late) to cash in an asset

The amount of renters getting notice to quit as the landlord wishes to sell would suggest the appetite to exit the market exists

antoinolachtnai

No, that wasn’t the issue. There was very little for sale

Banks won’t lend if property prices are falling.

It makes sense to sell when prices are high, especially if retiring.