Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 100, 103, 105, 113 and 115 together.

The Help to Buy Incentive, announced in Budget 2017, is an income tax incentive measure 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. With a view to increasing the supply of new housing and stimulating demand, the relief is only available in respect of ‘new builds’.

In the July 2020 Stimulus Plan, the scheme was amended so that the level of support available to first time buyers was increased to the lesser of:

• €30,000 (increased from €20,000);
• 10 per cent (increased from 5 per cent) of the purchase price of a new home / self-build property, or,
• the amount of Income Tax and DIRT paid in the four years before the purchase or self-build. The scheme was extended in its enhanced form in Budget 2021.

Help-to-Buy was extended in Finance Act 2022 for a further two years to end of 2024. This approach took account of the need for certainty in the market pending an increase in new housing supply envisaged in Housing for All and is in line with a recommendation of the independent review of the scheme completed July 2022 and takes.

Applications for Help to Buy may be made on a provisional basis as first-time buyers seek to clarify their entitlements in advance of commencing the purchase of a property. An application will only progress to the “claim” stage if and when the applicant decides to purchase a property that is eligible for the scheme. It is at the "claim stage" that the property address details become available.

To end April 2023, 39,657 HTB claims had been made, of which 38,924 had been approved. The estimated total value of approved HTB claims to date is in the order of €786.3 million and the total value of approved and pending HTB claims to date is in the order of €799.6 million,

In relation to Deputy Burke's question, I am advised that Cork has accounted for 5,050 Help to Buy claims since the scheme's inception in 2016. Claims in this instance relates claims made by tax-payer units which includes both individual tax-payers and those (married couples and civil partners) who share tax credits.

Any extension of the scheme beyond its current sunset date of 31 December 2024 will fall to be considered by Government as part of the Budget and Finance Bill process at the appropriate time.

In relation to the other questions, where the actual relief allowed is less than €20,000 I am advised by Revenue that it is not possible in the available data to classify claims as being subject to the enhanced HTB scheme, as their relief allowed may have been limited by their Income Tax and DIRT paid, rather than the percentage of the purchase price. However, it is possible to identify those claims where the cost to the Exchequer was impacted by the Enhanced HTB Scheme, that is, the relief allowed is greater than 5% of the purchase price/approved valuation. The table below sets out the approximate number of claims and the amounts claimed, broken down by County, of all claims where the relief exceeded €20,000, or exceeded more than 5% of the purchase price/approved valuation.

County	Number of Claims for Enhanced HTB that resulted in additional cost to the Exchequer	Relief Allowed €m
Carlow	180	4.4
Cavan	180	4.3
Clare	300	8.1
Cork	2,560	71.1
Donegal	340	7.9
Dublin	2,800	80.8
Galway	910	24.7
Kerry	230	5.8
Kildare	2,570	72.7
Kilkenny	300	8
Laois	450	11.5
Leitrim	50	1.2
Limerick	540	15
Longford	50	1.3
Louth	720	18.6
Mayo	380	9.6
Meath	1,850	50.7
Monaghan	190	4.9
Offaly	330	8.6
Roscommon	150	3.9
Sligo	160	3.9
Tipperary	290	7.4
Waterford	450	11.5
Westmeath	250	6.7
Wexford	620	15.8
Wicklow	710	20
Total	17,530	478.4