Irish Government Introduces Shared Equity Scheme and Extends Help to Buy Scheme for First Time Buyers in Budget 2021.

Irish Government Introduces Shared Equity Scheme and Extends Help to Buy Scheme for First Time Buyers in Budget 2021.

Irish Government Introduces Shared Equity Scheme and Extends Help to Buy Scheme for First Time Buyers in Budget 2021.

Cairn Homes Co-Founder and CEO Michael Stanley says “this will move the dial for affordable housing supply”.

The Irish Government has announced two important measures to boost the supply of new, affordable starter homes and improve first time buyer affordability and access to new homes in its 2021 Budget today (Tuesday 13th October 2020). It has committed to delivering a new Affordable Purchase Shared Equity Scheme through the establishment of a dedicated fund into which the State and Ireland’s commercial banks will initially invest €150 million, subject to regulatory approval. The Government has also announced the extension of the enhanced Help to Buy scheme until the end of 2021.

Following the Government’s announcement Michael Stanley, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cairn Homes plc, said:

“We await the detail of the new Affordable Purchase Shared Equity Scheme however I believe that this initiative, together with the extension of the Help to Buy Scheme, will start to move the dial on the supply of affordable housing in Ireland and address the home ownership aspirations of thousands of prospective homeowners caught in the affordability gap.”

“We look forward to working with the Government and state agencies to support their policy objectives and continue to be part of the solution to an acute social and economic problem.”

 “The homebuilding sector has a critical role to play in delivering supply, however given the reality of construction economics combined with insufficient mortgage-backed demand to underpin competitively priced delivery models, it has been exceptionally difficult for the broader industry to materially increase supply for this key market cohort. We were seeing significant pent-up demand from first time buyers after lockdown and we have been increasing our output to meet this demand since we reopened all 15 of our active construction sites in May. As a homebuilder of scale, we have always had the capability to respond immediately to demand by building more new homes and our supply of quality built, competitively priced, A-rated starter homes will respond to increased realisable demand as a result of the new Shared Equity Scheme announced today.”

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