Unlike a mortgage or personal loan, there will be no fees or charges applied to your equity facility for the first five years. The FHS will apply a service charge to your account from year six, as payment for services related to the provision, maintenance, and servicing of the equity facility.
There are other fees and charges you may incur from third parties in connection with the property and equity facility which you should be aware of. These include fees for financial advice, legal fees, and estate agent fees.
If you make a redemption, you will also be charged a fee for the valuation of your property from an approved FHS valuer.
FHS service charges
Service charges will be applied to your account from the start of year six following the drawdown of your FHS Equity Facility. Service charges accrue daily and are applied to your account monthly in arrears, so your monthly service charge may vary given the number of days in the month. We will contact you before the service charge is due to be applied to the equity facility to confirm your preferred payment option.
Service charges are calculated at the following rates per annum:
| Years | Service Charge Rate |
|---|---|
| 0-5 | 0.00% |
| 6-15 | 1.75% |
| 16-29 | 2.15% |
| 30+ | 2.85% |
The service charge rates are fixed for the life of the equity facility.
Please see Managing your equity facility for more information.
Financial advice fees
The FHS strongly recommend that you obtain independent financial and tax advice around all taxes due in relation this product. If you engage an independent financial or tax advisor, there may be a cost associated with this.
Legal fees
You will need to engage a solicitor to look after the legal aspects of purchasing a property, when you make certain changes to your equity facility, or when you sell your property. They will charge you a fee for these services.
Settlement of taxes
The homebuyer is responsible for the payment of taxes.
Estate Agent fees
You may choose to engage an estate agent if you are selling the property. They will charge you a fee for that service.
Valuation fees
If you want to make a redemption on your equity facility, in order to calculate the FHS equity share, a current valuation is required from a FHS approved valuer. You will need to order and pay for this valuation on the property as part of the redemption process.
Please see Property valuation and Redemption / buying back the equity share for more information.
WARNING: We strongly recommend that you seek advice from an independent financial adviser and legal adviser if applying for this product.
WARNING: Property prices can go up and down. As the equity facility is linked to the value of your home, any change in property prices will affect any partial or final redemption amounts. If property prices increase/decrease over time, the percentage equity you have to redeem will remain the same but the € amount will increase/decrease. See examples in the case of a price increase below:
Example 1: Home Purchase (private development)
Customer purchases a property for €250,000, availing of €25,000 from the First Home Scheme (FHS) which means the FHS has a 10% FHS equity share in your home.
Sometime in the future you decide to buy out the FHS equity share. The home is now valued at €350,000. As the FHS equity share is unchanged at 10%, you will now need €35,000 plus any accrued service charges payable, to redeem the FHS equity share in the home.
Example 2: Self-build (own site)
Customer owns a site valued at €100,000 and builds a house on that site at a cost of €300,000.
Customer avails of €30,000 from the First Home Scheme (FHS) which means the FHS has a 10% FHS equity share in your house built on the site.
Sometime in the future you decide to buy out the FHS equity share. The property, including both house and original site is now valued at €500,000.
At the time of build, the site value represented 25% of the total value of the home (i.e.€100,000) and this 25% will now be discounted from the current value before calculating the FHS Equity amount to be redeemed (€500,000 less current site value of €125,000, equals €375,000). As the FHS equity share is unchanged at 10%, you will now need €37,500 (10% of €375,000) plus any accrued service charges payable, to redeem the FHS equity share in the home.
WARNING: The First Home Scheme is not regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland and the equity product is not governed by the Central Bank and its statutory codes of conduct and/or other regulations to include the Consumer Protection Code. However, this does not affect your rights under consumer law.
