Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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25. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of applications granted for the help-to-buy scheme by county in each of the years 2018 to 2020; the number of applications by county in each of the years 2018 to 2020 by dwellings which were purchased and built, respectively; and the average amount granted per application in each of the years 2018 to 2020, in tabular form. [20905/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Help To Buy (HTB) scheme is designed to assist first-time buyers with the deposit required to purchase or self-build a new house or apartment to live in as their home.

HTB has a two main stages: the application stage and the claim stage. Compliant taxpayers who complete a HTB application are provided with an application number and a summary of the maximum relief available to them under the incentive. A mortgage provider, broker, qualifying contractor or solicitor can use this summary to verify the relief available to the applicant, for the purposes of mortgage approval or drawdown, or signing a house purchase contract.

An application will progress to the claim stage where the applicant decides to purchase a property that is eligible for the scheme. Many applications may never progress to the claim stage because the applicant does not purchase a property or purchases a property not eligible for the scheme.

Claims made cannot be approved and paid until the qualifying contractor, or the solicitor acting on behalf of self-builder, has verified the claim. Claims are approved by Revenue in the vast majority of cases but at any given time there will be a number of pending claims awaiting approval.

I am advised by Revenue that annual and monthly statistics on the Help to Buy (HTB) scheme are published on its website. Both reports provide a geographical breakdown of HTB claims by county.

The following HTB claims (cumulative) were made by county in the each half-year period 2017 to 2020:

* Revenue advise me that In certain periods Leitrim, Longford and Sligo data are not included as the numbers are small.

The following table sets out the claims (cumulative) by property type (including retrospective claims). Revenue advises that a breakdown of this information by county is not readily available.

Finally, Revenue advises that the average claims (rounded to the nearest €100) for each of the years from 2018 to 2020 are as follows:

2020: €20,000

2019: €15,200

2018: €14,800