Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Shutterstock/hin255

Mortgage caps are going nowhere, Central Bank deputy says

House hunters currently have to come up with 20% of a house’s value as a deposit (or 10% for first-time buyers).

RULES THAT REQUIRE house hunters to stump up a minimum deposit are going nowhere, the deputy of the Central Bank has said.

Announced in January of last year, the rules mean that buyers are required to produce 20% of a house’s value as as deposit, while first time buyers are only required to produce 10% on properties up to a value of €220,000.

Prospective buyers are also limited to borrowing 3.5 times their gross income.

Speaking in an interview published on the Central Bank’s website and featured in the Sunday Independent, Central Bank deputy governor Sharon Donnery has said that the rules are here to stay.

“I think on a personal level, all of us know people who are impacted by the caps,” said Donnery.

“Central Bank staff are impacted by the caps, friends, relatives are impacted by the caps and I think the Bank has been clear that we know that individuals, in terms of their decisions, their ability to borrow money, their ability to buy a house are definitely being impacted.”

Despite this, Donnery emphasised the the caps were the right thing to do, and would stop something she refers to as the “house price credit cycle”.

This is when a person has the ability to borrow more money, which in turn leads to them bidding more for a house.

Talking about the future of the caps, she said that the intention was to keep them as a “permanent feature” which may be calibrated.

“I think when we introduced them, we knew there would be an adjustment phase,” she said.

The housing market is extremely complex and it takes a while for people to get used to the whole concept of it. So there was always going to be adjustments.

At the moment, house prices in Dublin mean buyers are required to come up with a serious chunk of cash to secure a mortgage.

The most recent Daft.ie report shows that the average property price in central Dublin is €249,033, meaning that a first-time buyer is required to produced a deposit of close to €25,000.

Read: First-time buyers will be able to borrow 90% of property value up to €220k

Also: The Central Bank is keeping schtum on its radical new mortgage rules (for now…)

Close
81 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Business Cat
    Favourite Business Cat
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 3:38 PM

    Where would the hacks be if there was no twitter?

    125
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Darren Norris
    Favourite Darren Norris
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 9:19 PM

    I live facing the bridge, lots of helicopters etc al recording it and huge area shit down, blast lasted a second as they where stunt flames, people just being dramatic as usual

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute colin
    Favourite colin
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 3:57 PM

    Fuking stop with this clickbait shite

    62
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Radburn
    Favourite Paul Radburn
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 3:54 PM

    Another attention seeking headline

    56
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute An Observer
    Favourite An Observer
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 3:57 PM

    Paul, could you not have realised that it was a movie stunt from the * in the headline? Seriously,I mean it was practically spoon-fed to us….

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Radburn
    Favourite Paul Radburn
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 6:10 PM

    Oh, ok, the Brazil team were all, killed in a plane crash*

    2
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Radburn
    Favourite Paul Radburn
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 6:10 PM

    * means it’s not true

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Seán J. Troy
    Favourite Seán J. Troy
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 5:03 PM

    “The Foreigner” An action packed film starring Nigel Farage blowing up buses full of Syrian refugees.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niall
    Favourite Niall
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 6:27 PM

    Sap!

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Johnneary
    Favourite Johnneary
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 11:27 PM

    The victims and the victims families of the 7/7 bombing must be disgusted with this stunt.
    Quite a sick stunt to terrorise the men, women, children and oaps of London
    and try to accustom them to being under attack by the terrorists that their (bought and paid for) government radicalise and invite in from behind the safety of the bulletproof glass installed in their ivory towers.
    Sad
    So Sad.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Johnneary
    Favourite Johnneary
    Report
    Feb 8th 2016, 12:46 AM

    Video games have taken to the streets.
    Soon no one will know (or care about) the difference between a real terrorist attack and a fake one.
    How desensitised people have become.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
    Favourite Thomas O' Donnell
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 9:18 PM

    This whole thing has been blown out of all proportion!

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Harry Whitehead
    Favourite Harry Whitehead
    Report
    Feb 7th 2016, 10:18 PM

    The outrage bus has exploded.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat Gorman
    Favourite Pat Gorman
    Report
    Feb 8th 2016, 9:09 AM

    I am surprised that they had to use the real Lambeth Bridge in this day and age.
    Surely this could have been done in a film studio with the assistance of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery).
    That bus exploding would certainly have looked like a real terrorist attack to a casual unsuspecting observer.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat Gorman
    Favourite Pat Gorman
    Report
    Feb 8th 2016, 9:13 AM

    P.S.
    Are the film company going to compensate the disrupted commuters?
    Pigs might fly.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jacqueline McMahon
    Favourite Jacqueline McMahon
    Report
    Feb 8th 2016, 2:36 PM

    God some people just look for a way to be offended!!

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.