Help to Buy Mortgage Scheme HTB

The Help to Buy (HTB) scheme is an incentive for first-time property purchasers. It will help you with the deposit you need to purchase or self-build a new house or apartment. You must purchase or self-build the property to live in as your home.

What is a qualifying property?

• It must be a new build or a new self-build.
• The property must never have been lived in before
• The purchase value of a new build means the price you purchased it for. The value of the property must be €500,000 or less to qualify for HTB.
• You must take out your mortgage on the property with a qualifying lender.
• This loan must only be used for purchasing, or self-building, the property.
• The loan must be at least:

70% of the purchase value

or

70% of the approved valuation.

This is known as the loan-to-value ratio.

How much can you claim?

You are eligible for increased relief under the enhanced HTB scheme if, during the period from 23 July 2020 to 31 December 2024, you:

• Sign the contract for a qualifying property

Or

• Make the first drawdown of the mortgage in the case of a self build qualifying property.

The amount that you can claim is the lesser of:

• €30,000
• 10% of the purchase value of a new home or of the approved valuation of the property, in the case of self-builds
• the amount of Income Tax (IT) and Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) you have paid for the four years prior to your application.

The maximum payment is €30,000 per qualifying property under the enhanced relief. This cap applies regardless of how many people enter into a contract to purchase the qualifying property.

How will the refund be paid?

If you purchase a qualifying property, the refund will be paid to the qualifying contractor.

If you self-build the qualifying property, the refund will be paid to a bank account you hold with your loan provider.

Can revenue claw back a refund?

Revenue can claw back refunds if you:

• were not entitled to the refund
• do not live in the property for a minimum of five years
• did not finish the process to purchase the property
• did not finish building the property.

Revenue can claw back refunds from the contractor if:

• the property is not purchased by you within two years from when the refund was made to the contractor
• Revenue has reasonable grounds to believe that the property will not be purchased by you within that two-year period.

Once the property is completed and purchased by you, you are solely responsible for meeting the conditions for the Help to Buy refund. The developer is no longer responsible after this point.

Here is a link to Revenue regarding help to buy

https://www.revenue.ie/en/property/help-to-buy-incentive/index.aspx

Frequently Asked Questions about Help to Buy Mortgage Scheme HTB

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