The Help to Buy (HTB) incentive is a scheme for first-time property buyers. It will help you with the deposit you need to buy or build a new house or apartment. You must buy or build the property to live in as your home.
Where you meet the required conditions, you will receive a refund of:
and
The refund will be from the four tax years prior to when you make your application. The refund will not include any refunds you have already claimed.
To claim HTB, you must:
To qualify, you must not have previously bought or built a house or apartment, either on your own or jointly with any other person. If you are buying or building the new property with other people, they must also be first-time buyers. If you have inherited, or have been gifted, a property, depending on the circumstances, it may not affect your eligibility.
The contractor you are purchasing your home from must be approved by Revenue. You can check the list of approved developers and contractors to make sure that your developer or contractor is approved.
To qualify for HTB, the property that you build or buy must be:
The property must never have been used, or have been suitable to use, as a residential home. If the property was non-residential, but has been converted for residential use, it may qualify for HTB. If you buy or build the property as an investment, it does not qualify for HTB.
The scheme was amended to allow applicants using the Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme to buy their home to qualify for the Help to Buy Scheme. This came into effect on 11 October 2023.
The purchase value of a new build means the full Open Market Value (OMV) of the property. This is usually the price you purchased it for, unless you paid a reduced price for the property. The full OMV is the purchase value used for the purposes of HTB, in all cases. The purchase value of the property must be €500,000 or less to qualify for HTB.
If you are self-building a property, the approved valuation is the valuation of the property approved by the lender at the time you took out the mortgage. The approved valuation 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 be used only for buying or building the property. The loan must be at least 70% of the purchase value of the property or 70% of the approved valuation. This is known as the loan to value ratio.
You are allowed to have a guarantor on the loan. The guarantor does not need to be a first-time purchaser.
The amount that you can claim is the lesser of:
The maximum payment is €30,000 per property. This cap applies regardless of how many people enter into a contract to buy a house.
Universal Social Charge (USC) or Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) are not considered when calculating how much you can claim.
For further details please see Help to Buy (HTB) Part 15-01-46 and Summary Guide for Help to Buy Applicants.
The amount that you can claim is the lesser of:
The maximum payment is €20,000. This cap applies regardless of how many people enter a contract to purchase the qualifying property.
USC or PRSI are not taken into account when calculating how much you can claim.
If you buy a new build after 1 January 2017, the refund will be paid to the contractor.
If you self-build the property after 1 January 2017, the refund will be paid to a bank account you hold with your loan provider.
Before you apply, you must be registered for either:
Before you apply for HTB, you must submit an Income Tax (IT) Return for each year you wish to select as a refund year. A refund year must be within the four years prior to when you make the application. Any outstanding tax due for the selected refund years must be paid in full prior to submitting your claim.
If you were registered for another tax in any part of the refund years you are applying for, you must have a Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC).
Use myAccount to submit an IT Return for the relevant years. Online IT returns are pre-populated with your pay and tax details.
Please do not make your HTB application until:
Failure to do so could result in delays to your application.
If you are self-assessed, you must be fully tax compliant and have tax clearance. You must have filed your income tax returns and paid all the tax that you owe for any years where you were self-employed. Use Revenue Online Service (ROS) to submit your Form 11.
The refund of IT and Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) is based on the four years immediately prior to the year of application, starting with the earliest year.
In order to select a year in your HTB application, you must:
have submitted your annual IT Return for that year
and
have received:
your Statement of Liability from Revenue for that year, if you are a PAYE taxpayer. The Statement of Liabilities is not issued until after your return has been submitted.
a Letter of Acknowledgement of your self-assessment, if you are a self-assessed taxpayer.
There are three stages to the online process:
Before starting your application, please ensure you are tax compliant. You can apply as:
Use myAccount or Revenue Online Service (ROS) to apply. Complete the declaration and select the years you wish to use for a refund.
If you are tax compliant, your application will be approved, and you will be given:
Keep a safe note of these numbers, you may need to provide them to your:
Note
Even if your application is approved, all conditions of the Help to Buy (HTB) scheme must be satisfied for the claim to be approved.
A valid claim must be submitted before the application expires, otherwise your application will have to be resubmitted. Applications made between:
Lenders and contractors can use Revenue’s Mortgage Query Tool to check your potential maximum HTB refund.
You can make your claim once you have either:
Login to HTB through myAccount or Revenue’s Online Service (ROS)and complete the following steps below.
Upload evidence of your mortgage and the following information about your application:
You will be asked to confirm details about the:
If you are applying with other people you will also need to confirm the portion of the refund to be refunded to each person. If you are self-building, you will need to provide the BIC and IBAN of the loan bank account.
Once you have submitted your claim you will be provided with a claim reference.
Please ensure that you have carefully checked all the information you input before you sign and submit the claim.
If any of the information you have provided is incorrect, you must:
This must be done before you continue to step 3.
Before you receive any refund, the information you have provided will need to be verified by the:
When you have submitted your claim, advise your eligible verifier and provide them with your:
The refund that you receive is limited to 10% (5% under the original HTB scheme) of the:
This may mean that it is different to the maximum relief amount advised at the application stage.
There are two types of applicants who can apply for the HTB scheme:
Further information on this process is available in the Summary Guide for applicants.
| Contact Information | |
| Applicants | Use MyEnquiries in myAccount, if you are an employee and pay tax through PAYE
Revenue’s Online Service (ROS), if you are self-employed. |
| Revenue Website | All information regarding HTB Scheme in this document is taken from Revenue Website
https://www.revenue.ie/en/property/help-to-buy-incentive/index.aspx |
| Info for Applicants | https://www.revenue.ie/en/property/documents/htb-summary-applicants.pdf |
