Getting a mortgage in Ireland

[Bid876]

We are moving to Ireland thus year as my DH has a new job. DH is already there and rented us a house. We are currently deciding what to do about our current house and buying in Ireland.

We don’t want to be paying dead rent, we’ve done that for far to long in the past. Ideally we want to buy by the end of the year.

My questions are

1 Would be considered first time buyers? Obviously not where we are but it would be our first house in Ireland.
2 would we get a mortgage in Ireland while still having a mortgage in the UK?

Thanks

Welcome to Ireland - hope you’ll be happy here.

On your first question - this website suggests not, unfortunately.

On 2 - the banks here look at repayment capacity in making mortgage decisions so if you can afford to service both loans they would probably be willing to extend another mortgage. If you will need to sell your UK house things may be trickier. If both houses were here they might be willing to bridge one of the loans for a period but I suspect they may not be willing to take that risk on a UK property. A good broker might be your friend here.

www.askaboutmoney.com/forums/mortgages-and-buying-and-selling-homes.2/

I can’t speak from personal experience but anecdotally I have heard of banks wanting persons moving from abroad build up some sort of credit history before granting mortgages. Not sure how true that is.

Ask about money is an excellent forum which may provide better advice on this than mumsnet.

Thanks @Blogdog that’s all very useful. We have a rental lease until the end of the year and DH has already been in Ireland for a couple of months working so we are hoping by the time it comes to us looking for a house we will have enough of a credit history behind us.

I forgot to say, yes I’m sure we will be very happy, I can’t wait x

Can I ask which part of Ireland are you moving to? Northern Ireland or the Republic. Its prob a silly question I know but I know a few people who didn't realise that NI is still part of the UK.

If its the North then your current credit history will have already been built up.

If its the Republic you will need to build up a credit history. If you have a decent deposit ( as in 25%+) a years history is doable.

However the catch will be that you will not be considered a first time buyer as if you own property anywhere its counts. ( if you own a villa in France or a flat in Italy for example)

Also you also will most likely have to be considered a resident of Ireland. Most mortgage providers may insist on a permanent residency especially given the current climate.

Hope this helps.

@JLQ1020

Can I ask which part of Ireland are you moving to? Northern Ireland or the Republic. Its prob a silly question I know but I know a few people who didn't realise that NI is still part of the UK.

If its the North then your current credit history will have already been built up.

If its the Republic you will need to build up a credit history. If you have a decent deposit ( as in 25%+) a years history is doable.

However the catch will be that you will not be considered a first time buyer as if you own property anywhere its counts. ( if you own a villa in France or a flat in Italy for example)

Also you also will most likely have to be considered a resident of Ireland. Most mortgage providers may insist on a permanent residency especially given the current climate.

Hope this helps.

Hi, republic. Both my parents are Irish so I know it’s not a silly question, I’ve had to explain the difference with NI and the republic on more than one occasion.

By the time me and the DCs go over in the summer DH would have been there 9 months working, he will also be paying both rent in Ireland and the mortgage in the UK. He has to be resident in Ireland for his job and it will just be him on the mortgage as I’m a sahm. The ideal plan is when the me and DCs join him we rent this house out as we can get significantly more in rent than what we pay on the mortgage. If we need to sell to build up the deposit we will though. I’m not worried about how long it will take as I know the house will go fast in this area which ever decision we make.

We could go earlier, and financially it makes far more sense so we are not paying both rent and mortgage but I’m not keen on dragging the DCs over in the current climate. I’d much rather keep them in their current school until the end of the school year. We also have a few commitments over here we’d like to keep if we can.

Op - just to mention, if you are buying the property in both your names (always recommended for married couples), both your names will have to be on the mortgage.

We are Irish, but only returned to Ireland last year after decades away. Have never owned property here. We didn’t sell our UK house. We didn’t count as FTBs here, and I’ll be honest, getting a mortgage was difficult and took forever.