Central Bank finally sees the light!! and removes 20% deposit requirement for first time buyers.
Finally, the Central Bank has seen the light and removed its ridiculous requirement for First Time Buyers to have a 20% deposit when purchasing a house above €220,000.The new rule is that they only require 10%, irrespective of the price of the house.
For Second Time Buyers, Investors etc. the deposit requirement of 20% will remain, which I think is appropriate. If these purchasers do not have the minimum 20%, then I believe they are not in a position to trade-up or invest.
Hopefully this change will lead to more activity among First Time Buyers, but there is one major elephant in the room!! and that is property supply, particularly in Dublin. The Government now needs to sit up and take the measures that are necessary to either force developers, who are sitting on land banks, or a planning process that is slowing up supply to finally sort out this issue.
The Rental Market will also benefit from this change, as more people will seek to purchase a home and move from being tenants to homeowners.
WORD OF CAUTION — It will be 2 years before we can assess if this climb down by the CB has worked.