While commercial property investors got whacked in last week’s budget, the construction industry successfully lobbied for the Help to Buy scheme for residential building to be retained and left intact. Introduced in mid-2016, the scheme is available to first-time buyers of newly built homes up to a maximum value of €500,000. It has benefitted more than 15,000 first-time buyers since its introduction, according to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s statement on Budget 2020. It was designed to help first-time buyers put together the 10 per cent deposit for their new home as required by the Central Bank of Ireland’s macroprudential rules. Help to Buy was put in place in part to stimulate house building but has not worked efficiently.

Source: The Irish Times October 16, 2019 04:41 UTC