First Home Scheme must include second hand homes – Carrigy

The expansion of the First Home Scheme to include second hand homes is urgently needed, said a Fine Gael TD.

Deputy Micheál Carrigy, Chair of the Oireachtas Housing Committee, said that prospective homeowners who are looking to buy a second hand home should have the same opportunities as other first time buyers who are buying new builds.

“The First Home Scheme, first introduced in the last government, is a shared equity scheme for first-time buyers that involves the government and participating banks paying up to 30% of the cost of the home in exchange for a stake in it, which can later be bought back by the home buyer.

“Right now, the scheme is only available to first-time buyers who are purchasing a newly built property or building their own.

“The First Home Scheme helps to ensure thousands of families secure their new home, but now we need to take this further so that even more families can avail of this scheme.

“The Programme for Government commits to working with the banks to expand the First Home Scheme to first time buyers of second-hand homes.

“Including older second hand properties must be considered for the First Home Scheme if prospective buyers are to be given every chance to buy a home. This scheme will really reach its full potential when second hand homes are also on the table for homebuyers.

“Increasing supply is essential to helping more people buy their own homes, but while we do this, we need to look at helping people buy the housing supply we already have.

“This week we expanded the First Home Scheme for a further two years and increased funding for the scheme by €30million, but we now need to look at how we can expand this even further.

“First time buyers can be reassured that Fine Gael is doing everything we can to help them buy their own home,” concluded Deputy Carrigy.