Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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266. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to expand the help-to-buy scheme to include help for first-time buyers with the purchase of second-hand homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22752/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Help to Buy (HTB) is a scheme to assist first-time purchasers with the deposit they need to buy or build a new house or apartment. The incentive offers a refund on Income Tax and Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) paid in the State over the previous four years, subject to limits outlined in Section 477C of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997.

An increase in the supply of new housing remains a central and priority aim of Government policy. For this reason, HTB is specifically designed to encourage an increase in demand for new build homes in order to support the construction of an additional supply of such properties. For a property to qualify for HTB, it must be new or converted for use as a dwelling, having not previously been used as a dwelling.

A move to include properties which were previously used as residential homes/second-hand properties within the scope of the scheme itself would not improve the effectiveness of the relief; on the contrary, it could serve to dilute the incentive effect of the measure in terms of encouraging additional supply. Extending the HTB scheme in this way would provide no incentive effect to encourage the building of new homes and would be likely to have a significant dead-weight element and a high Exchequer cost.

For these reasons, I have no plans at present to extend the HTB scheme to include such properties.