Fresh Start Mortgage Ireland

The Fresh Start principle allows certain people who have owned a home before to be treated as first-time buyers again for mortgage and scheme purposes. It exists because circumstances change — relationships end, and people come through serious financial difficulty — and the system shouldn’t treat someone rebuilding their life as if nothing can change.

If you qualify, it’s not just goodwill — it restores access to the first-time-buyer lending limits and to Help to Buy and the First Home Scheme.

Broadly, two groups:

• Separation, divorce or dissolution. Your relationship has ended and you no longer retain an interest in the previous family home. The way your interest was divested matters, so the detail of your case is worth confirming.
• Insolvency or bankruptcy. You’ve been through bankruptcy, a Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA) or a Debt Settlement Arrangement (DSA), and that process is concluded or discharged.

In both cases the principle is the same: you previously had a home or property interest, that chapter has closed, and you’re starting again.

Treated as a first-time buyer, you’re assessed under the more generous first-time-buyer rules:

• Borrowing of up to 4× your income (versus 3.5× for movers).
• A deposit of as little as 10% — i.e. 90% loan-to-value. On a €300,000 home that’s a €30,000 deposit rather than the 20% (€60,000) a second-time buyer would need.
• Eligibility for Help to Buy (new builds) and the First Home Scheme, subject to each scheme’s own conditions.

Deposit figures are illustrative LTV arithmetic, not a quote.

Qualifying under Fresh Start opens the door — but lenders still need to see that you’re on a stable footing now. After an insolvency arrangement or bankruptcy, expect them to look for:

• The arrangement concluded or discharged.
• A sustained period of clean repayment history since.
• A clear, current picture on the Central Credit Register.
• Stable income and manageable existing commitments.

There’s no single fixed waiting time — it depends on what happened and which lender you approach. Applying at the right moment, rather than too early, is often the difference between a yes and a no.

Good preparation matters more here than in a straightforward application:

• Pull your Central Credit Register report and check it’s accurate.
• Gather the paperwork that confirms your Fresh Start status — e.g. a separation or divorce agreement showing you divested your interest, or the completion/discharge of your insolvency arrangement.
• Keep 6 months of clean bank statements and evidence of regular saving.
• Be ready to explain the past honestly — lenders respond far better to a clear, owned story than to gaps.

Fresh Start cases reward experience. We’ll confirm whether you genuinely qualify, identify the lenders most comfortable with your history, help you time the application so your recent record carries weight, and present your case in its best light.

If you’re not quite ready yet, we’ll tell you that too — and give you a clear plan to get there.

Check your eligibility →