Mayo buyers bucking trends with high housing incentive take-up

MAYO buyers are turning to Help to Buy for self-builds at nearly three times the national rate, new figures from the Department of Finance show.

Of Mayo's 898 approved Help to Buy claims since 2020, 578 - almost two-thirds - were for self-builds, with just 320 for purchased new-build homes.

Nationally, the pattern is reversed: just over one in five approved claims (22.3 per cent) was for a self-build, with new-build purchases accounting for the rest.

The same figures show almost 45 per cent of Mayo's Help to Buy applications since 2020 have failed to result in a home.

Of 1,627 applications from Mayo since the scheme's enhanced rate began in July 2020, just 898 went on to become approved claims, leaving 729 applications that were either rejected outright or never converted into a completed purchase.

That rate - 44.8 per cent - tracks the national picture almost exactly.

Nationally, 88,532 people have applied for Help to Buy since 2020, but only 48,878 have drawn down the support, also a 44.8 per cent rejection and drop-out rate.

Mayo's approval rate of 55.2 per cent is virtually identical to the national average of the same figure.

Among the 26 counties, Mayo sits squarely in the middle of the pack.

Longford and Leitrim have the lowest approval rates, at 53.5 and 53.8 per cent respectively, while Carlow and Dublin have the highest, both above 56 per cent.

Help to Buy allows first-time buyers to reclaim up to €30,000, or 10 per cent of a property's price, from income tax and DIRT paid over the previous four years, towards a deposit on a new-build or self-build home costing up to €500,000. It has been extended to run until the end of 2029.

Responding to the national figures, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris said Help to Buy had 'helped to bridge the gap to home ownership' for thousands of first-time buyers, while acknowledging 'there is still so much more to do in relation to housing'.