Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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244. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason why persons who previously bought a home in another jurisdiction but not in Ireland are not regarded as first time buyers here for the purposes of the help to buy scheme or under the Central Bank mortgage deposit rules; and his views on whether this is acting as a deterrent for some persons who may now wish to return here. [46841/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Section 477C of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 provides for the Help to Buy (HTB) initiative. A  first-time purchaser is defined as "an individual who ... has not, either individually or jointly with any other person, previously purchased or previously built, directly or indirectly, on his or her own behalf a dwelling". 

One of the main policy aims of the Help to Buy initiative is to help encourage the building of additional new properties. By restricting this initiative solely to new dwellings and new self builds, it is anticipated that the resulting increase in demand for affordable new build homes should encourage the construction of an additional supply of such properties. The other main aim of the scheme is to make mortgages more accessible to first-time buyers, many of whom have difficulty securing the required deposit under the Central Bank macro-prudential rules. I believe that it would be inequitable to individuals that are resident in Ireland to allow those who had already purchased a property elsewhere to avail of the incentive putting them at a significant advantage to both genuine first-time buyers and indeed all other buyers. 

Regarding the Central Bank of Ireland mortgage lending rules, it should be noted that the Bank is independent in the formulation of macro prudential policies. 

I am advised by the Central Bank that for the purposes of the Central Bank mortgage rules, a first-time buyer is defined as a borrower to whom no housing loan has ever before been advanced. Where the borrower under a housing loan is more than one person and one or more of those persons has previously been advanced a housing loan, none of those persons is a first-time buyer for the purpose of the Bank’s mortgage lending rules despite their previously owning a property.