BEING A FIRST time buyer is equal parts exciting and daunting. It’s great to be looking for a place to call home for the years to come, but the road there can be difficult to navigate.
We’re collaborating with Glenveagh to make your journey that little bit easier. One of the first building blocks is making sure you have all the facts. That’s why this week we’re looking at the increasing popularity of new builds, and why they’re a great option for first time buyers.
New builds are a hugely attractive choice for first time buyers. Not only do you get the feeling of a brand new home and a more sustainable build, but there’s also some substantial financial incentives as well. But more on those a little later.
These new builds are often part of new communities in excellent locations, providing a ready-made community for interested buyers. New builds also come without the baggage of existing issues and upgrades that can be found in some previously owned properties.
Together with Glenveagh, one of Ireland’s leading homebuilders, we’ve outlined just some of the many benefits of buying a new build to help you on your home owning journey.
When buying a home that’s advertised as for sale on the property market, you’ll often be up against other keen buyers. This can lead to a frustrating bidding war where you might go over your budget in an attempt to ‘win’, potentially causing a lot of financial stress.
With new builds, the price of the house in advance. Not only do you avoid the anxiety of waiting to hear about the status of your bid, but you can stay within budget and get a premium, modern home you really love.
Buying a new build means you can avail of the Help To Buy scheme. This scheme, which is only available for new builds, allows you to claim up to €30,000 from the government to help pay the deposit on a new build.
The current rules from the Central Bank state that the maximum mortgage you can avail of cannot exceed four times your income. The Help To Buy scheme can give you an extra boost to help you put your deposit together.
For example, if you’re a first time buyer looking to buy a house for €350,000 and you have a combined income of €70,000, the maximum you can borrow for your mortgage is €280,000 (four times your income).
You can claim up to €30,000 for a deposit with Help to Buy meaning you only need to save €5,000 to bring your deposit up to the 10% or €35,000 required for your mortgage.
The HTB scheme is designed to help first-time buyers raise the deposit they need to buy or build a brand new home, which they may not have through their existing savings,” Craig Doolan, sales manager at Glenveagh, said.
“It does this by refunding a percentage of the Income Tax and the Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) they have paid in the last 4 years,” Doolan added.
Another benefit for first time buyers is The First Home Scheme (FHS). This is where the State and participating banks pay up to 30% of the market value of your new home in return for a stake in the home. It can be used in conjunction with the Help to Buy scheme, but at a reduced level of 20% if you are availing of both schemes.
The First Home Scheme aims to bridge the gap for first-time buyers and eligible homebuyers between their deposit and mortgage. The minimum you can get is 2.5% of the property purchase price, or €10,000, whichever is higher.
For example, if you’re earning €60,000 a year and you want to buy a home that’s priced at €300,000.
Again, under the Central Bank’s mortgage lending rules you can only borrow up to four times your income, or in this case €240,000. You have the minimum deposit of €30,000 which is 10%.
This leaves you €30,000 short of what you need to buy your home, but under the First Home scheme you can receive €30,000 (which is 10% of the property value) in order to bridge the gap and allow you to buy your new home. You can read even more about the First Home Scheme here.
Getting a comfortable and cosy home that doesn’t cost a fortune to heat during our long winters should definitely be on your radar when looking for a new home. Thanks to changes in building standards, all new builds from 2019 onwards must have a Building Energy Rating (BER) of A2.
This means new builds are more energy efficient and cheaper to heat than most homes built before 2019. The A2 rating really makes a difference to your comfort, whether it’s through glazed windows that keep the heat in or renewable energy systems that mean you rely less on expensive and polluting fossil fuels, increasing the air quality in the home.
New builds rely on more sustainable materials throughout the property than older traditional houses. More economic heating solutions, such as air-to-water heat pumps that are more environmentally friendly than traditional oil/gas heating systems, also help achieve a BER of A2.
40% of Ireland’s energy-related carbon emissions come from buildings, and buying a new build means you’re doing your part to reduce that number.
Previously lived in homes often come with some previously loved design choices that might not be quite to your taste, as well as other areas that need changing or fixing. Renovating a house to your exact liking can be appealing for some, but it is a serious and expensive commitment that doesn’t work for everyone.
There’s so much to think about when renovating a home so that it feels like your space. Choosing a new colour scheme for the bathroom to replace the existing hideous pastel colours can be time consuming and costly.
Draughty homes with lower energy ratings are a nightmare to heat due to poor insulation in many cases. According to the SEAI, a three-bed semi-detached house that is A-Rated could save you up to 85% on your annual costs in comparison to an identically sized C-2 Rated home.
Not only is renovating your home time-consuming and disruptive, but it also costs a great deal of money. Improving the BER of an average house to an A rating can cost €70,000 or even more, depending on the home itself. Insulation, heating system upgrades, efficient windows and doors, and ventilation improvements all may need to be carried out to improve the BER.
Glenveagh can help make buying a property easier than ever before. Check out Gleveagh.ie to discover their upcoming communities across Ireland and begin your home buying journey.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say