independent.ie/national-news … 99606.html
Care to elaborate, Mr Lenihan? What market mechanisms or economic laws actually support the claims you are making?
There was a response in the Metro this morning by Junior Minister Finneran saying that the scheme was only available on new builds because thats what ftbs want
80% of FTB’s buy new builds.
The market won’t give out a loan so there is no such thing as “market rates”. There are market rates for people who are good credit risks, I presume that’s what they’re talking about. I still wouldn’t be surprised if we end up in a situation where those who have been refused mortgages by banks end up getting a loan from the taxpayer that costs them less than those who are good credit risks - yet another case of screwing over those who are prudent with their financial affairs.
Some young upstart had a response to him in the indo letters today:
Well said. Fact it was published shows how much the tide has turned.
Lenihan is probably right. The scheme is unlikely to be big enough to have any real effect on the market as a whole. That’s still no excuse to spend half a billion (we all know it will be more than that) getting people into more debt than they should be in, and negative equity to boot.
If you’re powering along in an ocean liner, ramming through a flotilla of small sail boats is unlikely to affect your velocity, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have consequences.
What should we call the people who get hurt by this scheme?
Collateral Damage?
-Rd
Well done Karl[os?]
Those nonsense claims really make my blood boil. Place no strictions and if FTBs want new builds they can buy them.
LET THEM BLOODY CHOOSE FOR THEMSELVES.
The question really isn’t “why only new builds?”. It is really “why exclude second hand?”
Bullshit. What about the 20% of FTBs who buy second-hand?
This reminds me of Orwell’s doublespeak. It is so blatantly obvious what this scheme is about and yet they insist on pedalling lies.
This is totally farcical - the world is going through a massive crisis basically caused by banks over lending to people. Our astoundingly stupid govenment decide to have a scheme to help people who earn over the average industrial wage buy houses even the over lending banks won’t finance.
The mind boggles, belief defied.
That’s another point! Someone on above avg industrial wage needs govt help to buy bog standard 2bed shue-box. That speaks volumes about our market and about how people are getting creamed by the buiders. Shame on FF.
Indeed. They are so desperate to hand our money to the developers, they are prepared to offer subprime loans to gullible borrowers at prime rates. You couldn’t make it up.
Well the initiative is obviously a pure bailout or optics in that direction and I don’t think it was necessarily intended to support house prices. If they wanted to support house prices wouldn’t they have brought it in for all houses. A perverse unintended consequence for second hand sellers who want to sell in a hurry is that they may have to drop their prices faster to compete with the builders. If buyers see second hand houses getting much cheaper than new-builds will they then start buying second-hands instead?
How about diminishing collateral damage 
yeah I heard that on the radio, absolute nonsense.
“We are promoting this scheme because we want to give FTBs the freedom to choose whether they want to buy a house or rent.”
why is it only available on new houses?
“Erm, our research shows that FTBs only want new houses”
What about their freedom of choice?
“ftbs are free to choose new houses”
He then went on to say that a ftb wouldn’t want to buy a second hand house because they are all more expensive than new builds. What? There are plenty of old houses out there that are much more ‘affordable’ than the shoebox in commuterland, especially considering the fact that the ftb doesn’t then have to go off and spend a fortune on fittings and appliances.
Heard that too. When pushed on why most FTBs only want new builds, he said that it was because new builds are priced 15% below second-hand homes in the current market. Bit of a kick in the teeth there for second-hand vendors.
80% of first time buyers purchase new builds (according to the Indo).