Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme

QUESTION

To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government if his Department is collating a central database of Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme applications from each local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter.


REPLY

As with the previous local authority home loan offerings, loan applications under the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan are made directly to the local authority in whose area the property proposed for purchase is situated. My Department therefore does not directly collect information on the number of enquiries to local authorities regarding the loan or the number of loan applications received by local authorities.
As is currently the case, my Department will continue to publish information on the overall number and value of (i) local authority loan approvals and (ii) local authority loan drawdowns.  Information up to Q3 2017 is available on the Department's website at the following link:
http://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/statistics/house-prices-loans-and-profile-borrowers/local-authority-loan-activity
, and this information will be updated on a quarterly basis as additional data is compiled.
As the Deputy will be aware, the Housing Agency provides a central support service which assesses completed applications that are made to the local authorities and makes recommendations to the authorities as to whether loans should be made to applicants.  I have asked the Agency to centrally compile figures of the numbers of applications that it has assessed. To date, it has received a total of 660 valid applications for assessment from local authorities. Of these, 479 have been assessed and 46% of the applications which have been assessed by the Agency have been recommended for approval.  It is then a matter for the relevant local authority credit committee to ultimately determine whether a loan application is approved, having regard to the Agency's recommendation and other relevant factors.