Revenue claws back €6m from Help to Buy claimants

Help to Buy scheme was designed to assist first-time buyers with the deposit required to purchase or self-build a new house or apartment to live in, with a maximum amount of €30,000 available. Picture: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire

Over €6m has been clawed back by Revenue from Help to Buy (HTB) scheme claimants since 2019 for not meeting the relevant conditions, including living in the home for five years.

Introduced in 2016, the scheme was designed to assist first-time buyers with the deposit required to purchase or self-build a new house or apartment to live in, with a maximum amount of €30,000 available.

However, the HTB payment must be repaid to Revenue for a failure to occupy the qualifying home as a main residence for at least five years.

It can also be clawed back where a self-build house is not completed within two years of the HTB payment being made or “where it transpires that a claimant, for whatever reason, was not entitled to a HTB payment". 

In the last five years, there have been almost 380 claimants who did not meet the relevant conditions for the HTB, resulting in about €2.5m being clawed back or returned to Revenue.

The majority of cases (340) related to instances where the payment was due to be repaid by an individual or couple.

The remaining 40 cases relate to payments which were due to be repaid by a qualifying contractor.

In the same period, there have been almost 360 cases where the claimant voluntarily cancelled their claim and the payments made, resulting in about €3.9m being clawed back or returned to Revenue.

A spokesperson for Revenue said the clawback cases represent “a very small proportion” of the 32,700 claims which have been verified under the scheme.

To date, 44,523 HTB claims have been made, 43,622 of which have been approved. The estimated total value of approved HTB claims to date is €909.9m.