STATEMENT: “Central Bank decision to amend lending rules wont help first time buyers” – Patrick Costello TD

Patrick Costello TD for Dublin South Central was today speaking following the announcement that the Central Bank is to relax its lending rules for mortgages. 

He began, “These rules were introduced post-IMF bailout as an effort to restrain the market and property prices more generally. Whilst they can be difficult they do help slow price increases.” 

“The proposal to extend the borrowing rules from 3.5 times your income to 4 times will not help anyone buy a home. In the absence of supply being able to borrow more will just drive up prices. I fail to see how this is helping buyers. This will just further enrich developers and banks.” 

He called for the Government to intervene, “Minister O’Brien and Minister Donohue need to come out strong on this today as a matter of urgency. They need to do push back against these changes”. 

Concluding he remarked, “The solution to the housing disaster is not relaxing lending rules, the solution is supply. The only way to solve this is to build houses and that is what we should be focusing on.” 

ENDS