Galway city & county
Mortgage advice from Francis Howard QFA — for Galway first-time buyers, self-builders, movers and switchers, handled online and by phone.
Find out how much I can borrow →Free eligibility check · 60 seconds · No registration to see your result
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Offices in Cork and West Cork — serving clients nationwide by phone and Microsoft Teams.
IWantAMortgage.ie is run by Francis Howard, a Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA, RPA, SIA) regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. We work with buyers right across Galway — the city, the suburbs and rural west — comparing across our lender panel so you get the mortgage that's most suitable for you, not the one a single bank wants to sell.
Everything runs online and by phone, so distance from an office is never the thing that holds your application up.
The limits are national: up to 4× gross income and a minimum 10% deposit for first-time buyers. Where Galway buyers most often gain ground is in matching the right lender to their profile — particularly anyone self-employed, on contract, or building rather than buying. That's exactly what the free eligibility check is for.
Self-build is a real part of the Galway market, and it needs a lender comfortable with staged drawdowns and one-off rural homes — not every bank is. For first-time buyers, the First Home Scheme cap in Galway is €400,000 and can be combined with Help to Buy up to a total 30% equity share.
We model whichever path applies to you — purchase or self-build — and check it against the lenders who actually support it.
Yes. We advise clients across Galway city and county — from Salthill and Oranmore to Tuam, Loughrea and out into Connemara — entirely online and by phone or video. You get a named adviser, Francis Howard QFA, and most of the process can be completed without ever visiting an office.
Lenders apply national rules: up to 4× gross annual income and a minimum 10% deposit for first-time buyers (90% loan-to-value). A limited number of exemptions above 4× are available each year. Our free eligibility check checks your exact figures across our lender panel before you apply.
The First Home Scheme price limit in Galway is €400,000 for both houses and apartments. FHS can provide up to a 30% equity share, and combined with Help to Buy (up to €30,000 on a new build) the total can't exceed 30% of the purchase price.
Yes — one-off and self-build homes are common across rural Galway and Connemara, and they're assessed very differently to a standard purchase: site value, build cost, professional certification and staged drawdowns all come into play. We arrange self-build mortgages with the lenders who genuinely support them and walk you through each stage payment.
The free eligibility check costs nothing and needs no registration. Our fee is €300, paid once when you proceed to a full assessment — and that's it: it covers your full assessment, preparing and submitting your application, and support at every step through to the day the keys are in your hand, with no second fee at any stage. The lender also pays us a standard 1% procuration fee on completion, disclosed to you in writing before submission.
We advise clients across Ireland — online and by phone — wherever you’re buying:
See where you stand across our lender panel in about 60 seconds — free, no registration, no credit check. Then speak to Francis whenever you're ready.
Warning: If you do not keep up your repayments you may lose your home.
Howard Financial Services Limited T/A IWantAMortgage.ie is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland (C430229). Member of Brokers Ireland.
Registered in Ireland, Company Registration No. 659301. Registered Office: 2 Mountain Common, Ardfield, Co. Cork. Director: Francis Howard.
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