Sir, – The article “How to give yourself the best chance of buying a home amid Ireland’s housing crisis” has advice for first-time buyers to get their ducks in a row to give themselves the best chance of buying a home they can afford (Conor Pope, August 6th). This is eminently sensible advice.
Having one’s ducks in a row in particular relates to having loan approval in advance of making a bid for a new home.
The article goes on to state in relation to loan approval: “If you don’t have the approval from a bank, there is little point in even looking on myhome.ie [a property website owned by The Irish Times] for the houses you might like to live in.”
What about the option of the Local Authority Home Loan? This scheme, which is not mentioned in the article, is specifically aimed at first-time buyers who do not have approval from a bank.
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Not only is the Local Authority Home Loan an alternative to loan approval from a bank, applicants are required to provide proof that they are not able to get sufficient loan approval from a bank.
On the day the article was published I searched on myhome.ie and found second hand two- and three-bed homes for sale in my local authority area of south County Dublin for less than ¤300,000.
Those homes are well within the maximum property value permitted for Dublin of €360,000 under the Local Authority Home Loan Scheme.
As a county councillor on South Dublin County Council, I am aware of a current Affordable Home Scheme in Citywest being advertised by my council that includes homes that can be purchased by eligible applicants using the Local Authority Home Loan.
The Local Authority Home Loan can be used in combination with the Help to Buy Scheme for the purchase of homes under the Affordable Homes Scheme.
The Local Authority Home Loan is a State-guaranteed home loan with competitive fixed interest rates and terms of repayment. It can be used to fund the purchase of new, second-hand and self-build homes.
There is no doubt about the significant challenges that first-time buyers face in today’s housing market, but it is important that to help them get their ducks in a row, they are informed of all of their options including those being offered by local authorities. – Yours, etc,
CLLR JOANNA TUFFY,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.