Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 April 2024
154. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the estimated first-year and full-year cost of removing residential stamp duty with respect to the purchase of residential property by first time buyers for property purchase values of €500,000 or less. [18668/24]
View answerStamp duty applies to the acquisition of residential property at a rate of 1% on the transfer of ownership of property with a value of up to €1m and 2% on any balance over €1m.
The bulk purchase of houses (not apartments) i.e. the acquisition of 10 or more in any 12-month period, triggers a 10% stamp duty rate. If triggered, it will also be applied to all of the up to 9 houses purchased previously in that 12-month period. Certain conditions and a number of exemptions and refund schemes apply to this rate on bulk acquisitions.
I am advised by Revenue that, based on stamp duty returns for 2023, the latest year for which fully analysed data are available, the estimated cost of abolishing stamp duty for first-time buyers of residential properties valued at less than €500,000 is in the order of €43 million.
This estimate is arrived at by taking the stamp duty returns for residential property purchases made by persons identifying themselves as first-time buyers, where the consideration was less than the suggested threshold, and taking the associated tax liability as the potential cost of exempting them from the duty.
