Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI) has announced that it has approved €102m in funding for the construction of over 500 new homes throughout Ireland in its first nine months of operations.

The HBFI has €750 million at its disposal and it its latest update said it had received over 40 full applications and 90 % of these relate to developments outside Dublin.

It has approved €102m in funding, facilitating the delivery of 513 new homes. Individual developments backed by HBFI range from 10 units to 76 homes. Individual loan facilities range from €1.5m to €18m. Developments funded in 11 counties: Carlow, Clare, Cork, Dublin, Kerry, Kildare, Laois, Louth, Meath, Monaghan and Wicklow. It has approved loans over terms ranging from 12 months to 44 months. HBFI has capacity to fund the delivery of up to 7,500 homes over a five-year period.

Paschal Donohoe TD, Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure & Reform, said: “The figures published today show that HBFI has made a strong start in its efforts to help deliver more new homes. By funding commercially viable developments of varying sizes, HBFI will make a difference and meet demand for new homes both in Dublin and in regional locations where construction firms have limited options in terms of accessing the funding they need. HBFI-backed developers will play a critical role in supporting our national housing market, ensuring it gets firmly back on its feet, and I welcome the progress that HBFI is making, approving facilities of over €100m that aim to deliver over 500 new homes. I look forward to HBFI continuing to make strong progress in the years ahead”.

Dara Deering, HBFI CEO, said: “Reaching this important milestone demonstrates HBFI’s urgency in making an impact on improving the supply of new homes. In addition to the €102m funding we have approved to date, we have established a healthy pipeline of applications which augurs well for our work, as we continue to build awareness in the market of the significant support we can provide to housebuilders throughout Ireland with commercially viable projects. The projects for which HBFI has approved funding are widely dispersed across 11 different counties and range in size from 10 units to 76 units. We have plans to support big and small developments wherever demand for new homes exists and we will continue to build on the excellent engagement that HBFI has had with the market to date. We have a lot more work to do but we are pleased with our progress so far”.