Bank of Ireland joins the First Home Scheme with €70m commitment

7 July 2022 – Bank of Ireland has joined the First Home Scheme, a joint venture between the Irish State and the Irish retail banking sector, as a founding participant which will see the bank invest €70m into the scheme. The scheme is designed to help qualifying first time buyers purchase their own home by bridging the affordability gap between their deposit and mortgage, and the price of their first home.

Supporting the construction of new homes is of strategic importance for Bank of Ireland. We finance homebuilding nationwide that aims to provide suitable options for all home buyers.

• The Group’s fund for residential development is €2bn which is providing financial support, nationwide, for the development of a range of housing types including environmentally sustainable Nearly Zero Energy Building Standard (NZEB), A Rated, and social housing development.
• The Group has approved funding for the development of c.13.5k new residential units across c.200 sites across Ireland, to be delivered in the period 2022-2025 for all tenures: private & social, for owner occupier & rental sectors.
• The Group has a Social Housing Development Finance Fund of €400m which underpins our support for social housing. We are currently supporting the development of c.1.5k social housing units (excluding Part V) which is predominantly for builders to deliver to Approved Housing Bodies. The Bank was also the only Irish bank funder on delivery of c.1k housing units under Social Housing Bundles 1 & 2.
• Bank of Ireland helped customers purchase a new home through the provision of €2.4bn in new Irish mortgage lending during 2021. 35% of all mortgages provided by the Bank last year were green, increasing to 45% during the last quarter of the year.

Alan Hartley, Director of Home Buying, Retail Ireland, said, “Bank of Ireland strongly supports the ambition of many of our customers to own their own home. Our participation in the First Home Scheme as a founding member reflects our ongoing commitment to help first time buyers get their first step on the property ladder. We are also delighted to be a part of a scheme which supports the delivery of energy efficient homes and a societal move towards a low carbon future.”