The Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme - which helps first-buyers to purchase a house - may be be extended.
The Rebuilding Ireland home loan was launched a year ago with an initial tranche of €200m of finance borrowed by the Housing Finance Agency to provide funds for the scheme to local authorities.
The aim of the scheme is to make it easier for first-time buyers who earn too much to qualify for social housing, but too little to get a sufficient mortgage from a bank to buy their own home.
Under the scheme, you can borrow up to €288,000 to buy a home in Kildare.
Fine Gael TD for Kildare South and Chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party, Martin Heydon, has received confirmation from Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy that his department are in discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and Finance with regard to an extension to the scheme.
Mr Heydon said: “Within Kildare a funding amount of €15m was approved by the Council’s elected members and by the Department.
"At this point in time, this amount has been fully committed and so no further applications are being considered by Kildare County Council for the Rebuilding Home Loan.
“Kildare County Council have confirmed to me that a total of 68 loans have been approved within that €15m funding, with 20 drawn down to date.
"The remaining 48 are still within the 6 month approval limit so may yet be drawn down.
"If they are not drawn down within the time frame set out the money will become available to applicants whose applications have not yet been processed."
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