# Irish Times: Mortgage to Rent scheme fails to tempt distressed homeowners



## Brendan Burgess (6 Sep 2022)

Mortgage-to-rent scheme fails to tempt distressed homeowners
					

Scheme allows homeowners with unsustainable arrears to hand over home and rent it long term with option to buy it back




					www.irishtimes.com
				




_It was first introduced back in 2012 but, some 10 years on, a Government supported scheme, which aims to help distressed borrowers remain in their homes has had limited take-up.

Despite recent enhancements, the numbers availing of the mortgage-to-rent scheme remain low. What is going on?_


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## NoRegretsCoyote (6 Sep 2022)

Because so many people in deep arrears actually have quite a lot of positive equity, and often a valuable house!

This Central Bank study was from 2017 and showed that 60% of accounts in arrears were in positive equity. House prices are up 20% since then so at this point I would think a large majority are in positive equity, often by quite a lot.


https://imgur.com/Xz9XbMU

I suspect a lot of householders still in negative equity (or the small amount of positive equity permitted) don't satisfy the income criteria either. A lot of people would rather hold out for an inheritance or to use their tax-free lump sum when they retire to clear a balance. Once you're in the MTR scheme it's lost to you forever.


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