Getting a mortgage for house in Republic of Ireland?

chilswelluk

Since lockdown, I am pretty much working from home all the time and don't envisage this ending when we come out of lockdown.  This affords me a great flexibility on where I  live.  Having had a few holidays in the Republic of Ireland, I very much like the place.  I am also struck by how reasonable the prices of rural property are.  My preference would be for a derelict rural house, that I could spend the next 10 years renovating myself.  I am 40 years of age and currently have 37k of savings and am earning 38k per year.  I would like to borrow about 60k. Not sure how practical it would be for a British citizen to get a mortgage for a Republic of Ireland property?  I know it may be more difficult with Brexit, but I do have the option of Italian citizenship, although that is likely to take a few years.  I currently live in a shared house and have never owned a property before.  I was also economically inactive for many years, having given up work to become a carer for a former partner, however I started work again in the last few months.  A few difficulties I envisage are that I currently live in a house share, which includes bills, so don't have any bills in my name.  I also have no credit history, having never had any type of finance in my life.  On the advice of others I recently got a credit card 2 months ago and have been using it for food shopping which comes to about £100 per month.  I have always paid the full balance off on the card within minutes of making any transaction.  I don't really have any expenses, other than rent which is by direct bank transfer.  I don't go out and have no other expenses other than a 23 year old car that I maintain myself.
Does anyone know the Republic of Ireland market, and if it would be realistic for someone like myself to get a mortgage on a derelict property?

davidmcn

How "derelict" are you talking about? It's going to have to be in good enough condition to be considered mortgageable (I wouldn't expect Irish criteria about that to be significantly different from those in the UK).

Would it not make more sense for you to rent there for a while anyway and build up some sort of Irish credit footprint? Otherwise as far as Irish banks are concerned you're just some random foreigner without even a UK credit history. Also makes house-hunting a bit easier if you're over there.

MaryNB

Do your research into the cost of living. There was an article in the Irish Times a few days ago about a couple that moved to rural Ireland from England and were stunned by how high livings costs were. Car insurance much higher, GP visit €50-€60, A&E €100, prescriptions more expensive, dental care only private for adults and way more expensive, no council tax or water bills but there is property tax (much less than council tax) and bin charges, higher banking charges, there is a hefty fire brigade call out fee in most areas. 

I know very little about mortgages in Ireland (I bought in SW England because it's much cheaper than my home city of Dublin) except the max salary multiplier is lower (not an issue for your budget) and interest rates are higher. 1% stamp duty up to €1m, no FTB exemption. Minimum 10% deposit for FTB, min 20% deposit for non FTB. Those figures are for standard mortgages though, no idea about a derelict house. 

Thrugelmir

chilswelluk said:

 My preference would be for a derelict rural house, that I could spend the next 10 years renovating myself. 

Then you'll need the cash in hand to make it habitable. As the property won't provide adequate security for the debt. UK mortgage lenders won't be interest in any event. 

tommyedinburgh

Be very, very careful here. My wife is Irish, if you need any kind of planning permission for a rural property in Ireland you will instantly be rejected if you are not from that local area - no exceptions. 

MaryNB

tommyedinburgh said:

Be very, very careful here. My wife is Irish, if you need any kind of planning permission for a rural property in Ireland you will instantly be rejected if you are not from that local area - no exceptions. 

This is a very good point! I have a distant relative who moved back to the rural area in the midlands where they grew up (after several years working in Wales) and struggled to get planning permission. They they got their baby baptised in the local church, joined the local GAA club etc to emphasise their ties to the local area. Dunno what the final outcome was.

In some designated Irish language regions (Gaeltacht) you'll need to be proficient in Irish to get planning permission.

chilswelluk

tommyedinburgh said:

Be very, very careful here. My wife is Irish, if you need any kind of planning permission for a rural property in Ireland you will instantly be rejected if you are not from that local area - no exceptions. 

Does this mainly apply to new builds, what about renovations?  If it does apply to renovations, it seems a bit of a strange system.  When travelling through Ireland, I was struck by the amount of derelict rural properties (far more than in the UK) that looked like they had been in that state for 50 years - you think places would be happy to see them smartened up. 
As for cost of living, I have to say I did not notice it was particularly high.  I rented Airbnb places, which were very reasonable and I did not notice a huge difference in the price of food.  As someone who is fit and healthy, I am not too worried about medical costs.   Granted, I am not familiar with the tax system or energy prices etc, so there may be some nasty surprises there.
I am not saying it is feasible, but I am just exploring options, as my job allows me to work almost anywhere.  

MaryNB

You could try asking on an Irish forum.  Boards.ie or Askaboutmoney.com might be useful.