Cork people received more than €150m in help to buy aid

More than 15% of the nearly €1bn spent on the help to buy scheme has gone to people in Cork, new figures have shown.

The help to buy (HTB) scheme is an incentive for first-time buyers to help with their deposit for purchasing or self-building a new home by providing a tax refund.

Those who meet the required conditions will receive a refund of income tax and deposit interest retention tax (DIRT) paid in Ireland. The refund will be from the four tax years prior to when the person made their application.

Under changes made to the scheme in 2020, the maximum payment is €30,000 under the enhanced relief. The cap applies per property rather than per applicant.

Approved

Fianna Fáil TD for Cork East James O’Connor asked the minister for finance the number of persons and houses that have been approved for the help to buy scheme, by county, and the value the scheme has been worth since 2020.

Minister Paschal Donohoe told Mr O’Connor in the Dáil last week: “The help to buy incentive is a scheme to assist first-time purchasers with the deposit to buy or build a new house or apartment. It also has as an aim to encourage additional supply of new houses by supporting demand.

“As of March 31, 2025, the scheme has supported since 2017 in Ireland almost 55,000 individuals or couples to buy their own home. The estimated total value of approved help to buy claims is in the order of €1.2bn.”

He added that he had been advised by Revenue that nationally, from January 1, 2020 to May 23, 2025 there have been 39,631 approved claims covering 72,291 associated claimants. In that time, the total value of approved help to buy claims is in the order of €995.8m.

In Cork, there have been 5,936 claims approved from 10,803 claimants, at a cost of €153.2m, the second highest in Ireland, and narrowly behind Dublin. Fewer than a 1,000 claims have been approved in more than half the counties.