@gidmos44 I often think these sort of green/eco mortgages are a tax on the poor. If you earn less it’s more likely you can only afford a property with a low energy rating and you end up paying a higher interest rate.
@mischael I mean considering our tax system this is good.
It encourages people with wealth to refurbish their house to maximise their house value and to actually increase future tax flow.
These people are also those who pay a huge amount of relative tax to the true poor who typically can't afford a house or are muchore likely to have gotten some scheme involvement in their house purchase.
@mischael I think it works a bit differently, i.e. poor wouldn't be buying houses or refinansing mortgages? They'd be selling houses they own - which probably are not very efficient to begin with.
I don't know how it would affect the middle class for whom upsizing/downsizing/buying/selling is a big concern, vs the rich - who buy some years more, some years less, who'd be using cash if buying anything these dased (based on expected return).
@jenniwrenn Perhaps poor was the wrong word. Less well off might be better… so people that can just stretch to buying a property but because they can only afford an older building with poor BER they also get hit with a higher mortgage rate.
@gidmos44 This is all part of the drive to be Net Zero. Banks can’t claim to be green if they’re financing lots of houses that are F rated so hiring through fuel to run.
They all want the A rated mortgages on their books.
European regulation is on its way too that will raise the bar further for houses, likely result in a lot of current A rated houses being downgraded to B (anything without solar panels basically)
@vescd I think banks want to finance the higher BER rated homes because it means customers are less likely to default on repayments with big fuel bills, Less risk for them
@gidmos44 Can one switch from a mortgage provider (eg: about to end a fixed rate period with them) to a different provider for X years locked in fixed rate again.
I'm looking at buying our first family home and I'm lost in mortgage jargon and stuff.
BER A-B rated or new built houses are very nice but they're around 400K in this area, so seriously considering a lower BER rated house and price. We have saved 175k for deposit but still need a mortgage for 125k min.
Not sure if this is a good time as they seem to go down a bit but who knows what the future looks like.
@tuk Yes you can, but you need to engage a solicitor, and go through the approval process again (as far as I know) so there are costs and time associated with it.
It can of course be well worth your while even with having to pay for a solicitor again. A couple of years ago banks were offering to pay your solicitor fees if you did it. Not sure if they'll still do that.
Correct me if I'm wrong but if you're buying a house you've already drawn down the mortgage before you would have a chance to do any energy upgrades? Also it's only for new business so you can't even fix for one year and then try refix when you've done the work. BOI in particular are well known for having terrible rates for existing customers once these 'new business' fixed rates have expired
@aether So there are two options.
1. You can start your mortgage with Variable rates and then do the energy upgrades to get BER. This will allow you to get cheaper fixed rates .
2. You can start with fix rates, in above case the 4 year one. Then upgrades BER and show the new BER cert to bank to reduce your interest rate.
I asked BOI and they were willing to go the 2nd route. But I asked this few months ago , so it’s better to discuss with them before draw down.
