First Time Buyer Status

Hello, I wonder if anyone has experienced the following: I arrived in Ireland three years ago and am now 'ordinarily resident' in status according to my accountant. I am looking to buy a house here with a mortgage and because I haven't owned a house before in Ireland and haven't owned a house in my home country, UK since 2019 and as I have no financial links to the UK there will be no need for foreign credit report that would show the past mortgage, my broker says I can apply as a First Time Buyer for 4 X salary. Does it sound correct?

Under the relevant regulations, a "first-time borrower" is "a borrower to whom no housing loan has ever before been advanced". If you drill down into the definitions, a "housing loan" is advanced by a "lender"; a "lender" is defined as a "regulated financial services provider", and "regulated financial services provider" is a financial services provider whose business is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland or by a similar authority in another EEA country.

The UK isn't an EEA country, but it was until 2019. So, assuming that the house that ChampionCharlie used to own in the UK was financed with a loan from a UK-regulated lender, ChampionCharlie is not a first-time borrower.

But.

The regulations concerned are not directed at borrowers, and don't say how much borrowers can borrrow. It's aimed at lenders, and it says how much lenders can lend. All the obligations under the regulations are imposed on lenders.

Which means that, if an Irish lender advances 4xsalary to CC, CC does nothing wrong, improper, unlawful, etc and they haven't breached any regulations (assuming they answered the lender's questions fully and truthfully, of course). The lender may be at fault for not having asked CC the right questions, and so lending 4xsalary to someone who, they should have found out, is not a first-time borrower.

In other words, if a lender advances 4xsalary to CC, that's not CC's problem; it's the lender's problem.

OP you don't mention your personal circumstances but you may be able to 'regain' your FTB status via the Governments 'fresh start' policy.

You are a ‘fresh start’ applicant if you previously owned a home, but you no longer have a financial interest in it because:

You are now divorced, separated, or your relationship has ended
You have gone through personal insolvency or bankruptcy

ChampionCharlie said:

and as I have no financial links to the UK there will be no need for foreign credit report that would show the past mortgage

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I wouldn’t be 100% sure a lender wouldn’t seek a credit report for a country you lived in until a few years ago.

Are you hoping to get access to the Help to Buy Scheme or any other potential benefits as a first time buyer that may exist other than increase lending limits? If not, then you can always request your non first time buyer mortgage to be an exemption one to 4 time as well. That way everything is above board. Remember as well 4 times is the max, your affordability of your max might mean this is reduced eg if you have dependents or other loans that must be serviced.