Irish Examiner view: Home buying scheme has failed to deliver

Our housing crisis has been pretty close to the top of the Government’s list of fixable crises for more than a decade, yet we still have a considerable distance to travel before this problem can be regarded as resolved — if it ever is.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, in a Christmas interview, set a target of 25,000 homes next year. This is an ambitious goal, over 30% higher than the 18,000 built this year. 

Pointing out that around €3.3bn has been committed to various housing projects in 2021, Mr Martin suggested that finding the capacity to build these houses or apartments will be the key issue. 

It is hard not to think that a less conventional approach might lead to more socially positive outcomes.

That, presumably, was the objective of those first-time buyers who, up to the end of November, made one of the 1,542 applications for a home loan under the Department of Housing’s Rebuilding Ireland finance scheme. 

It must signal that something is out of kilter when more than half of these applications — 827 — were rejected, while only 715 were approved.

Launched two years ago, the scheme was set up to support first-time buyers who have a deposit and the capacity to repay a mortgage, but who have been refused a mortgage by other lenders. 

There are probably valid reasons for refusing a number of applications, but it is hard to understand why the attrition rate is so very high. 

Maybe the terms of the scheme need to be reviewed if it is to realise its objective?