Home Building Finance Ireland sees loan approvals increase to over €2bn

Government-owned lender said it approved funding for 11,200 homes across 162 developments

HBFI was established in 2018 and is a private company operating on a commercial basis but is wholly-owned by the minister for finance.

The Government-owned Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI) has grown its total loan approvals to more than €2.05bn as of the end of June — an increase 24% from the end of last year.

Of the total value approved by the company, €1.32bn has been drawn down for 96 developments, where 8,161 homes are either in the middle of construction or they have been completed.

Chief executive of HBFI Dara Deering said the increase in loan approvals over the last six months “reflects the really strong and sustained demand for new homes” as well as the “significant appetite” among homebuilding companies “to meet that demand if they can get the finance they need”.

“We’re now in our sixth year in business and we’re made a significant contribution to accelerating housing supply by approving funding for over 11,000 new homes in 23 counties across Ireland,” he added.

HBFI said it had approved funding for 11,200 homes across 162 developments, of which 66% are houses while 34% are apartments. 

Close to 6,000 HBFI-funded homes are either already sold, contracted for sale or sale agreed. 

New approvals between January and June more than doubled the approvals seen during the same period in 2023, to €398m.

HBFI said it typically expects a time lag of between three and six months between a loan being approved and its first drawdown. It has a loan facility of between €1m to €108m, with an average size of €13m.

The average development size is 69 units.

HBFI was established in 2018 and began offering loans in January 2019. It operates as a private company operating on a commercial basis but is wholly-owned by the minister for finance.