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In a year marked by ups and downs, 2020 is ending on a good note for thousands of first-time buyers.
Ireland’s lockdown between March and June gave some home seekers an opportunity to save money, plan and prioritize.
With mortgage experts forecasting that the first quarter of 2021 will be “the busiest in recent history,” the Irish independent spoke to first-time buyers who recently got the seal of approval.
“The Covid-19 pandemic curiously ended up helping us,” said Amanda Keogh from Dublin.
Ms. Keogh and her partner Joey Broderick, both in their 30s, had been saving for their permanent home for the past two and a half years while also renting in the capital.
After two false sunrises, they finally got their mortgage approved in November and just went up for the agreed-upon sale for a three-bedroom home in Walkinstown.
“Home visits were so much better during the pandemic, as there was none of the crazy open-view seen before, everything was done in private,” he said.
“It had been very difficult for us to find a house, but everything fell into place. I’m glad that something positive came out of 2020. “
Broderick was forced to pay Pandemic Unemployment Pay (PUP) during the first lockdown, but fortunately was able to work during the recent coronavirus level 5 restrictions.
“I don’t think we would have gotten the mortgage approved if Joey had to go to the PUP a second time,” Ms. Keogh said. “There was talk that banks were okay with people receiving the Covid payment, but we found that this was not the case. We both had to send letters from our employers confirming that we were not receiving any support from Covid, so we are lucky. “
Spending more time at home led many to reassess their situation. Megan Walsh and Gary Fox, a 25-year-old couple from Cork, were fed up with paying exorbitant rent for a two-bedroom property.
They got a mortgage approved in June and have just moved into their new four-bedroom house in Ballincollig.
The mortgage repayment is € 600 cheaper than your monthly rent.
“We hadn’t planned to buy for another four years, but my fiancé’s father saw a house on the market that was too good to turn down,” Ms. Walsh said.
“At that time it was on the market at a very low price and we thought, what the hell, we will do it. Of course, as soon as we did that there was a lot of interest and we ended up in a kind of bidding war. We finally got the house for € 293,000 ”.
She is a primary school teacher and Mr. Fox is a member of the Irish Naval Service.
Both are on incremental pay scales and their savings exceeded expectations during the first months of lockdown.
“We are both very young, so it is absolutely surreal,” said Ms Walsh. “We still can’t believe it’s ours.”
Niamh Delaney (27) and her partner Alan Dunne (29) also hope to spend their first Christmas in their new home.
The Dublin couple moved in with Ms. Delaney’s mother so they could focus on saving for a house.
“The rental market in Dublin is crazy, so it makes the most sense, I really don’t know how people can afford to rent and save,” he said.
“We went on the agreed sale in March 2019, but we had to reapply for a mortgage three times. We reapplied in late May, practically at the height of the pandemic, and finally got approval.
“Fortunately, we both have secure jobs and we had to sign documents confirming that we would not take advantage of any mortgage disruption during the pandemic. I am the last of five siblings to buy a home.
“My mom will definitely come over for Christmas and it will be the first time she hasn’t had to cook dinner since she had children.”
In October of this year, more than 5,000 mortgages were approved.
Mortgage experts believe there will be a further increase in approvals next year driven in large part by first-time buyers.
Confidence in vaccines and growing savings will also be a factor, according to Joey Sheahan, chief credit officer at MyMortgages.ie.
Sheahan said there has been a 106% growth in first-time homebuyers applying for mortgages in 2020.
“There were periods this year when very little could happen, but at other times, we were busier than ever,” he said. “And I know our experience in this regard reflects that of other riders across the country.
“We will leave 2020 on a solid footing in terms of the volume of mortgage applications we are working on and I have a suspicion that the first quarter of 2021 could be one of the busiest in recent history. I hope that, as in 2020, it is the first-time buyers that dominate the transaction activity. “
Sheahan also predicts that loan exemptions will take center stage from the beginning of the year, with first-time buyers scrambling for some sought-after exceptions.
“We currently have seven banks offering waivers, which means that a borrower can borrow more than 3.5 times their income or a second-time buyer can borrow up to 90%. And we hope that more banks will open to exemptions in the coming weeks. “
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