Mortgage Allowance Scheme

The Mortgage Allowance Scheme was introduced to assist householders who are tenants or tenant purchasers of local authority houses to become owner-occupiers of other dwellings.

An allowance of up to €11,450 is payable directly to the lending agency over a 5-year period and your repayments are reduced accordingly for the first 5 years of the mortgage. Your mortgage may be from a commercial lending agency or from a local authority.

You may be eligible if you are:

• a local authority tenant or a tenant purchaser and you want to buy a private house and return your present house to the local authority. However, if you are buying a house under the Shared Ownership Scheme, you are not eligible for the Mortgage Allowance Scheme
• a housing association tenant for more than 1 year in housing provided under the Rental Subsidy Scheme, and you are giving up your tenancy and taking out a mortgage to buy or build a private house

The house must be suitable for your needs, meet certain minimum standards and be acceptable to the local authority. The amount of the mortgage must be at least €38,092.14.

The allowance is paid directly to the lending agency and your mortgage payments are reduced in each of the first 5 years as follows:

The allowance paid in any year cannot exceed the amount of the mortgage repayments.

Instalments of the Mortgage Allowance payment are processed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for payment directly to mortgage accounts of individuals.

To apply you must contact your Local Authority.