Help to Buy, the First Home Scheme, and every grant you can use on a self-build

Up to €60,000 in State support, if you know which schemes stack.

More State support is available for building a home in Ireland than most people claim. The rules on combining them are where it gets confusing, and where money gets left behind.

Almost every guide to these schemes is written for someone buying a finished house from a developer. This one is written for someone building on their own site. The rules are different; several schemes work better for you than for the developer's customer, and one of them, the First Home Scheme, is routinely and wrongly described as being closed to self-builders.

Here is what's on the table. We'll confirm exactly what applies to your situation before you commit to anything.

Which grants can you get for building a house in Ireland?

Scheme	What it's worth	Who it's for
Help to Buy	Up to €30,000 cash	First-time buyers building or buying a new home
First Home Scheme	Up to 30% of build cost (20% with HTB)	First-time buyers and Fresh Start applicants
Ready to Build	Up to €30,000 off a serviced site	Anyone buying a local authority site
Local Authority Home Loan	State-backed mortgage at 4.00% fixed	Buyers refused sufficient finance by two lenders
Housing Adaptation Grant	Up to €20,000 on a home under 12 months old	Households with a disability or mobility need
EV Home Charger Grant	€300	Any home with off-street parking
0% VAT on solar	Roughly €1,000–€1,500	Everyone
Clean Export Guarantee	Ongoing payment	Anyone exporting surplus electricity

Help to Buy up to €30,000

A refund of Income Tax and DIRT you have already paid over the previous four years, released towards your deposit. It is capped at €30,000 or 10% of the value of the home, whichever is lower.

Who qualifies

You must be a first-time buyer, meaning you have never owned or held an interest in a residential property in Ireland or abroad. If you are building with someone else, they must also be a first-time buyer. Fresh Start applicants who have been through divorce, separation, insolvency or bankruptcy can also qualify.

The completed home must be worth €500,000 or less, must be new construction subject to VAT in Ireland, and must be your principal residence. You need a mortgage of at least 70% of the value. You must also be fully tax compliant for all four years you're claiming against, with a Form 12 or Form 11 filed for each.

How much you'll get

This is the part that catches people. The €30,000 is a ceiling, not an entitlement. Your refund is limited by what you genuinely paid in Income Tax and DIRT over those four years. USC and PRSI don't count.

If you've worked abroad, been self-employed with modest drawings, taken parental leave, or been out of the workforce, the number can be well short of the headline. Your Revenue record will tell you before you plan a budget around it. Check it early; it's a five-minute job in myAccount, and it changes what you can realistically afford.

How it works on a self-build

Self-builds qualify, and the mechanics differ from a developer purchase in three ways.

The refund is calculated on the approved valuation of the completed home rather than a purchase price. It is paid into a bank account you hold with your loan provider, not to a builder. And instead of needing a Revenue-approved qualifying contractor, you need a solicitor registered with Revenue as an HTB approver to verify the claim.

The conditions afterwards

You must live in the home for five years from the date it's habitable. Sell or move out earlier and Revenue will claw back some or all the refund on a sliding scale.

The enhanced rate runs to 31 December 2029. Apply through Revenue myAccount or ROS. Full rules on Citizens Information.

The First Home Scheme, up to 30% of your build cost

A shared-equity scheme funded jointly by the State and participating lenders, currently AIB, EBS, Haven, Bank of Ireland and PTSB. It contributes up to 30% of your build cost and takes an equivalent percentage ownership of the finished home. If you're also using Help to Buy, the maximum drops to 20%.

Yes, it covers self-builds

There is a dedicated First Home Scheme self-build product for people building on a site they already own or are in the process of buying. It has been in place since September 2023. Price ceilings apply to houses, apartments and self-builds alike.

This gets stated wrongly almost everywhere, including in guidance written by people who should know better. If you've been told the scheme only applies to homes bought in a private development, you've been told wrong.

There is no income limit

The second thing people get wrong. Income is not part of the eligibility test at all.

What matters is that you are borrowing the maximum available to you from a participating lender under Central Bank rules, up to four times gross income for a first-time buyer, and that you're not relying on a lender exception to do it. If your lender grants you a Macro Prudential Exception, you're disqualified. You also need a deposit of at least 10%.

Price ceilings

Set individually per local authority and reviewed every six months, most recently in July 2026. They currently run from around €350,000 in the lowest areas to €500,000 in Dublin, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, South Dublin, Wicklow and Cork City.

We deliberately don't republish the table here, because a page carrying a stale ceiling is worse than one that links to the live figures. Check the current ceiling for your county.

What the equity share costs

Understand this properly before you commit. It is not free money. The first five years carry no charge. From year six, a service charge applies to the State's share and increases in later years, and it accrues whether you're able to pay it down.

More importantly, the share is a percentage rather than a fixed sum. If the State puts in €70,000 as a 20% share and your home is later worth €450,000, buying that share back costs €90,000 plus accrued charges, not €70,000. In a rising market, redemption gets more expensive the longer you leave it.

The scheme is not regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland and the equity product falls outside the Consumer Protection Code. Take independent legal and financial advice before signing.

For context: the average build cost among self-builders using the scheme is around €392,000, with average support of roughly €67,000, about 17% of the cost. Around two-thirds of users also claim Help to Buy.

Citizens Information overview · firsthomescheme.ie

Ready to Build, up to €30,000 off a serviced site

Local authorities sell serviced sites in regional towns and villages at up to €30,000 below market value. Serviced means water, wastewater, electricity and road access are already in place; the expensive, slow, uncertain part of a rural self-build is done before you buy.

The discount reflects what it cost the council to service the site, so it varies. €30,000 is the ceiling.

What you must commit to

• Apply for planning permission within three months of approval and paying your deposit

• The site only transfers into your name once permission is confirmed

• Start building within 12 months of getting permission

• Live in the completed home as your principal private residence

• Accept a claw back if you sell within the specified period

• You can only buy one site under the scheme

Eligible towns and villages generally have a population above 400, though smaller settlements with sufficient services are included.

Why this suits a Hapi home specifically

Those two deadlines are the whole point of the scheme, and they are what makes people nervous about it. Three months to lodge planning means having a design ready, not starting one. Twelve months to break ground means no drawn-out tendering, no waiting on a builder's availability, no redesigning when the first price comes back.

We design, lodge the planning application and manufacture in parallel. The program that makes the scheme risky for a traditional build is comfortable for us.

Finding a site

There is no national listing. Sites are advertised locally, on council websites, and in local newspapers, usually with an application window of two to three weeks. You apply directly to the local authority for the area you want to build in. If you tell us the counties you're considering, we'll watch for them.

Citizens Information overview · Department scheme page · Find your local authority

The Local Authority Home Loan, a State-backed self-build mortgage

A government mortgage for first-time buyers and Fresh Start applicants who can't get enough finance from the banks. It can be used to build or buy.

Terms

• 4.00% fixed for terms up to 25 years, 4.05% for 25 to 30 years

• Fixed for the full term, the repayment never moves

• Borrow up to 90% of market value

• Repayments must come to less than one third of household income

• Mortgage Protection Insurance through the local authority collective scheme is mandatory

Eligibility

• Income under €80,000 single or €85,000 joint. The single limit rose from €70,000 on 1 April 2026

• Aged 18 to 70

• Deposit of at least 10%, Help to Buy can cover this

• Two years' continuous employment or self-employment for the primary applicant, one year for a secondary applicant

• Evidence of insufficient offers from two regulated lenders. This is the gate most people trip on. You need written proof that two banks either declined you or wouldn't lend enough

• Most local authorities will want to see planning permission with the application

Maximum property values, from 1 April 2026

Area	Maximum
Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow	€415,000
Cork, Galway city, Meath	€375,000
Galway county, Louth, Clare, Kilkenny, Limerick, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford	€345,000
Carlow, Cavan, Donegal, Kerry, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary	€310,000

If you were approved under the previous, lower limits, you can access the increased amounts by writing to your local authority to request the additional loan and confirm your circumstances haven't changed. You do not need to reapply.

Two things to plan around. You cannot combine this with the First Home Scheme, it's one or the other. And a decision takes roughly six to eight weeks from a complete application, with the offer valid for six months, so timing matters against a Ready to Build deadline.

localauthorityhomeloan.ie · Repayment calculator · Citizens Information overview

The Housing Adaptation Grant on a new home

Most people assume this only applies to older houses being retrofitted. It doesn't.

The Housing Adaptation Grant for People with a Disability funds works that make a home suitable for someone with a physical, sensory or intellectual disability or a mental health difficulty, level-access showers, wheelchair-width circulation, ground-floor bedrooms and bathrooms, ramps, platform lifts.

On a home less than 12 months old, the maximum grant is €20,000. On an older home, it's €40,000. It's means-tested on the previous year's gross household income: up to 100% of the approved cost where income is below €37,500, tapering down to 30% at €75,000. Above €75,000, you don't qualify.

You'll need an Occupational Therapist's assessment for most applications. The council can arrange one, or you can appoint your own and claim up to €300 of the cost back as part of the grant. Allow three to six months for approval.

Tell us at the design stage, not after. Designing level access, a wet room and adequate turning circles into a panel layout costs very little when it's on the drawing. Cutting them into a finished house costs a great deal. This is the single most under-used support in Irish housing, and the one where building new rather than adapting old gives you the biggest advantage.

Citizens Information overview · Department scheme page

Solar, EV charging and VAT on a new build

EV Home Charger Grant, €300. A flat €300 from SEAI. You need private off-street parking, a charger listed on the SEAI Smart Charger Register, and a Safe Electric registered installer. One grant per MPRN. There's no build-date restriction, so a new home qualifies, and you don't need to own an EV yet. Critically: you must have your Letter of Offer in hand before any work begins. Starting early is an automatic rejection.

0% VAT on solar. The supply and installation of solar panels on a private home carries a zero VAT rate, down from 13.5%. On a typical system that's worth €1,000–€1,500. It covers the panels plus ancillary equipment, inverter, wiring, and a battery if fitted in the same job, provided it's a single supply-and-install contract. It applies to a new build exactly as it does to an older house, and it isn't tied to any grant.

Clean Export Guarantee. You're paid for surplus electricity exported to the grid, regardless of the age of your home. Rates vary by supplier, so it's worth comparing when you're choosing one.

What doesn't apply, and why that isn't a loss. SEAI retrofit grants, insulation, heat pumps, windows and doors, and the €1,800 solar electricity grant, are limited to homes first connected to the electricity grid before 1 January 2021. SEAI verifies this through your MPRN connection date, not your planning permission or BER certificate.

Those grants exist to lift older, leakier housing up to a standard your new home already exceeds on day one. An A-rated home with an airtight envelope, MVHR, triple glazing and a heat pump starts where a €50,000 deep retrofit is trying to finish. You're not missing out on the funding — you're skipping the problem it was created to fix.

SEAI Solar Electricity Grant eligibility

Which grants can you combine?

Help to Buy + Ready to Build. Yes. Up to €60,000 of combined support: €30,000 off the site, €30,000 towards the build. This is the strongest combination available to a self-builder.

Help to Buy + First Home Scheme. Yes, and roughly two-thirds of First Home Scheme users do exactly this. Using both caps the FHS equity share at 20% rather than 30%.

Help to Buy + Local Authority Home Loan. Yes. Your Help to Buy refund can form part of the 10% deposit the loan requires.

First Home Scheme + Local Authority Home Loan. No. Explicitly incompatible. The First Home Scheme also cannot be combined with the Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme.

First Home Scheme + Ready to Build. No published rule prevents it, the site discount applies to the site, the FHS self-build product applies to the build cost, but neither scheme confirms it in writing. Confirm directly with the First Home Scheme before relying on it.

Housing Adaptation Grant. Sits outside all the above and affects none of them.

EV charger grant and 0% VAT. Independent of everything else.

We'll work it out with you

Tell us where you're building, whether you own the site, and whether you're a first-time buyer. We'll tell you what you're likely to qualify for and what it's worth against a specific design on a specific site, not a general figure, a real one.

Thresholds, ceilings and eligibility rules change, sometimes twice a year. This page is general information, not financial or legal advice. Confirm current details with Revenue, the First Home Scheme, your local authority and your own advisers before making any decision