Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 11, to delete lines 15 and 16 and substitute the following:

“(a) in subsection (1)—

(i) by the insertion of the following definition:

“ ‘Act of 2021’ means the Affordable Housing Act 2021;”,

(ii) in the definition of “qualifying period”, by the substitution of “2024” for “2022”, and

(iii) in the definition of “qualifying residence”—

(I) in paragraph (a), by the substitution of “dwelling,” for “dwelling, or”,

(II) in paragraph (b), by the insertion of “or” after “converted for as use as a dwelling,”, and

(III) by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (b):

“(c) a building which was not at any time used as a dwelling and was purchased by a first-time purchaser in accordance with an affordable dwelling purchase arrangement (within the meaning of section 12 the Act of 2021) and a direct sales agreement (within the meaning of section 7 of the Act of 2021),”,”.

This amendment is required to ensure that new homes delivered for affordable purchase under Project Tosaigh will continue to be considered as a new home for the purposes of the help to buy scheme. Project Tosaigh was initiated by the Land Development Agency as part of the Government's Housing for All strategy. There are two arms to the project: one is the delivery of cost rental units and the other is the delivery of homes for affordable purchase by local authorities. It is anticipated that the project will deliver up to 5,000 affordable homes for purchase or rent by the end of 2026.

The purchase arm of the project is aimed at accelerating the delivery of affordable purchase homes, on site with full planning permission, that are not currently being developed by the private sector due to financing and other constraints. Under this arm, eligible purchasers will be identified by local authorities in line with the criteria outlined in the Affordable Housing Act 2021. The LDA will take beneficial ownership of each property in order to facilitate the ownership transfer from the vendor-developer directly to the eligible purchaser.

However, the help-to-buy scheme is limited to new properties only. Although the properties being provided under Project Tosaigh will be new dwellings, the onward sale of the beneficial interest to the eligible purchaser is technically considered a second sale. For this reason, the property ceases to meet the current criteria for a qualifying residences for the purposes of the help-to-buy scheme, so the purchaser would not be eligible for help-to-buy support. For this reason, the definition of "qualifying residence" in section 477C of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is being amended to ensure that certain new homes being delivered for affordable purchase by direct sale developers, which presently include the LDA under the Project Tosaigh initiative, will continue to be considered as new homes for the purposes of the help-to-buy scheme.

The amendment provides for such situations where a body has taken beneficial ownership of a new property for onward delivery as an affordable home and is approved to perform such activities under the Affordable Housing Act 2021. The LDA is the only body to do this. The amendment ensures that taxpayers who purchase a home under the Project Tosaigh initiative will be able to avail of help-to-buy support where all other conditions of the relief have been met.

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