If you are bidding on a new build under 500,000 euros in the next year, assume the buyer beside you has 5,000 euros more to spend than they did yesterday.
What changed
The Help to Buy maximum rises from 30,000 euros to 35,000 euros, a 5,000 euro increase. The property value ceiling stays at 500,000 euros. The Irish Examiner reported that purchasers of older properties can in some cases access the separate vacant homes grant of up to 50,000 euros instead.
Rent-a-room relief, which exempts rental income an owner-occupier earns by letting space in their own home, rises from 14,000 euros to 16,000 euros. It is also extended to newly installed detached auxiliary dwellings of between 32 and 45 square metres, retrospectively from 27 July 2026.
Stamp duty on residential property did not change. First-time buyer stamp duty on second-hand homes was not abolished, despite Fianna Fail pressing for it through the final round of negotiations.
The mechanism
Help to Buy is structured as a refund of tax the applicant has already paid in Ireland, which is why the ceiling is expressed as an amount of back taxes the buyer can reclaim rather than as a cash grant. That structure, not a residency test written into the scheme, is what keeps it out of reach of a buyer with no Irish tax history.
Budget-day announcements in Ireland are statements of intent. The measures are legislated in the Finance Bill that follows the budget, and until that Bill is published the statutory wording and the commencement date are not fixed. Neither the Irish Times nor the Irish Examiner coverage of budget day specified a commencement date for the higher refund, so a buyer close to drawdown should not assume the 35,000 euro figure is available on a contract signed this month.
On stamp duty, the schedule that stayed in place charges 1 percent on the first 1 million euros of residential value, 2 percent on the portion between 1 million and 1.5 million euros, and 6 percent above 1.5 million euros, with a 15 percent rate on bulk purchases of 10 or more residential properties excluding apartments. Fianna Fail's proposal would have exempted a slice of value for first-time buyers and charged the tax only on the balance above a set threshold. Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Fianna Fail TD Seamus McGrath backed it. Fine Gael opposed it, and Tanaiste and Finance Minister Simon Harris said before the budget that "I have made my views clear in relation to stamp duty. I haven't changed my views in relation to that." Fine Gael's stated objection to the alternative was that enlarging Help to Buy could inflate house prices. The government presented the 5,000 euro increase as the compromise that settled the argument.
Context
Ireland taxes residential purchases by value and by volume rather than by the buyer's nationality or residence, and Budget 2027 did not add a residence-based measure to that framework. That sets it apart from European markets now using the purchase tax itself as the lever on foreign demand. The Netherlands charges 7 percent on second homes and investment property against 2 percent for owner-occupiers, and Greece has legislated a 15 percent transfer tax aimed at non-EU buyers, with no implementing bill published yet.
The practical effect is that Ireland's foreign-buyer exposure runs through supply and competition rather than through a surcharge. A grant that grows while its price ceiling stays fixed pushes more domestic buying power into a narrow band of new stock, and that band is where the apartment supply aimed at overseas purchasers also sits. Watch the Finance Bill for the commencement date, and watch whether the ceiling moves in a later amendment.
Related coverage: the Netherlands second-home transfer tax at 7 percent, Greece's 15 percent transfer tax for non-EU buyers and its missing bill, and UK house price growth halving in September.
Sources
- Budget 2027: tax cuts of 1.3bn euros; new savings scheme to have 50,000 euro tax-free threshold, The Irish Times, 6 October 2026
- Budget 2027: 5k boost to new home grant but first-time buyer stamp duty won't be scrapped, Irish Examiner, 6 October 2026
- Budget 2027: First-time buyer stamp duty will not be abolished, Irish Examiner, 5 October 2026
- Stamp Duty Ireland 2026: Rates, Exemptions and Rules, Irish Tax Hub, updated 3 October 2026
