Home Building Finance Ireland: State loans for companies building five or more homes

The loans on offer

The first two loans can include up to 60% of the cost of buying the site. The exit fee is waived where the whole development is contracted for sale as social or affordable housing.

A Green Funding discount of up to 0.5% off the margin applies on any product where the design is certified to the Home Performance Index or an equivalent standard. The margin cannot go below 4.5%, and the discount is clawed back if the finished scheme does not get the certificate.

Who can apply

Anyone in control of a site can make an enquiry, but the borrower has to be a company. Loans are approved to corporate entities only.

The project must be:

• five new homes or more
• mainly residential. A creche or neighbourhood shops within the planning permission can be included
• commercially viable, with demand you can show for the homes
• delivered by a team with enough experience to finish it

You typically need to put in at least 20% of the cost yourself. The value of a site you already own can count as some or all of that.

The company must show that its tax affairs are in order and up to date.

Who cannot borrow

• Individuals and sole traders borrowing in their own name.
• Anyone building fewer than five homes, including a one-off house.
• Developments that are not mainly residential.
• A site with no planning permission and no application lodged. Where an application has been submitted, the loan can be assessed and approved, but nothing is paid out until planning is granted.
• Any business looking for ordinary working capital or equipment finance.

If you are doing up one empty house, look at the refurbishment grant for owners of a vacant property instead. That grant is for named owners and is not available to registered companies.

If you are converting an empty shop or office, see what is on offer for turning commercial buildings into homes. For any other business, start with the main kinds of business finance and who offers them.

What you have to send

Its guide for small builders lists what lenders generally ask for:

• details of the planning permission and the project drawings
• a full breakdown of project costs
• a short biography of the borrowing company and the main building contractor, with their development experience
• details of the design and building team
• a schedule of works by stage, with projected sale prices and timings, often backed by a sales report from a local auctioneer
• a statement of assets and liabilities

Home Building Finance Ireland adds its own application form and a monthly cashflow for the build and the sales, which you fill in on its spreadsheet. Its team will help you complete both.

Leave contingencies out of your monthly figures. It applies its own assumptions: a 5% contingency on costs and 3% construction cost inflation. It also tests the cashflow with sales closing about three months after the homes are finished.

How to apply, step by step

1. Submit the enquiry form on its website or ring (01) 238 4600. The form asks for the number of homes and the county.
2. A member of the lending team contacts you within two business days, and will meet you on site or wherever suits.
3. The team helps you gather what is needed for a first assessment. It can then issue indicative heads of terms before you have paid any funding costs.
4. If you are happy with those terms, a full application goes forward for loan approval.
5. If the loan is approved, a facility agreement sets out the terms. Its guide suggests bringing your solicitor in early, to allow time for the legal checks.
6. The money is drawn down in stages as the build progresses, on reports from a monitoring surveyor. The loan is generally repaid from the sales.

It says it typically expects 3 to 6 months between approving a loan and the first drawdown.

For small builders it pays half of the monitoring surveyor's fees on qualifying schemes of up to 10 homes, up to a cap of €10,000.

How much it has lent

By the end of June 2026 Home Building Finance Ireland had approved €3.78 billion for 19,399 homes in 256 developments across 25 counties. It says 80% of its approvals were for loans of less than €20 million.

Individual loans range from €1 million to €113 million. The average is €14.7 million, over an average term of 23 months.

Common questions