Third of recipients of Help to Buy scheme did not need it to meet 10% deposit requirement

By the end of 2021, the estimated cost of Help to Buy claims was €559.7m, which was 47% above cost estimates. File picture

A third of recipients of the Government’s Help to Buy scheme did not need it to meet the 10% deposit requirement to buy their first home and this may have helped to fuel property price inflation, a new report has found.

The Oireachtas Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) conducted an analysis of the scheme from its inception in 2016 to the end of 2021, and said its analysis “suggests that the scheme is poorly targeted towards its stated aim of providing support to first-time buyers in meeting their deposit requirement”.