merrion street

The Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe T.D. today (Monday) published a review of Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI) as required under Section 24 of the HBFI Act. This provides for a periodic review of HBFI to ensure that it is fulfilling its functions as set out in the Act and that its continuation remains necessary given prevailing market conditions. This review is now available on the Department of Finance website.

Commenting on the review of HBFI, Minister Donohoe said: ‘HBFI was established in 2019 as an important Government initiative to address a shortfall of finance available for the construction of residential housing in the State. This review highlights that HBFI is establishing itself as a strong presence in the residential development finance market in Ireland with approved funding, to end-December 2020, to support the potential delivery of up to 1,850 new homes across 17 counties in place’.

“HBFI currently offers six products to the market including the Momentum Fund product, which was introduced for a time limited period following the onset of Covid-19. This demonstrates the agility of HBFI’s business model to respond to disruptions to the residential development finance market in Ireland and tailor its offerings towards those areas of the finance market where specific demand has emerged. It is important that HBFI continues to remain agile to ensure it can respond to on-going disruption in the market.

“It is clear from this review that that access to development finance remains an issue for homebuilders to fully support the continued delivery of housing required to meet expected demand at this time. Therefore this review concludes that HBFI should continue in operation at this time with a further review to take place in 2023.

“I would like to thank all those who responded to the public consultation and who engaged with my Department during the course of this review. I would also like to thank the HBFI Board and staff for their input into the review and for their continued day-to-day efforts.”

ENDS

Contact:

Deborah Sweeney, Special Advisor, Department of Finance — 086 858 6878

Aidan Murphy, Press Officer, Department of Finance – 085 886 6667

pressoffice@finance.gov.ie

Notes for editors

HBFI Key statistics as at 31 December 2020: