Self-build grants in Ireland: which supports can you actually get?

Before you count any of it in your budget, work out what each support actually is, who it is for, when the money arrives and what you must do first. This guide goes through each one. For a personal shortlist, use the grant checker, which asks a few short questions and tells you which of these to look at.

Amounts and limits below are those each scheme published at the review date on this page. Rules change, and this guide is not tax, legal or financial advice: confirm your own position with the scheme, Revenue or a qualified adviser before you commit money.

The supports at a glance

Support and biggest amount	Who it is for
Help to Buy Up to €35,000	First-time buyers with a mortgage
First Home Scheme Up to 30% of build cost (20% with Help to Buy)	First-time buyers, and people starting again after a divorce, separation or insolvency, with a mortgage
Local Authority Home Loan Up to 95% of build cost and fees	First-time buyers, and people starting again after a divorce, separation or insolvency
Ready to Build Up to €30,000	Individuals building their own home
Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant €50,000, or €70,000 if derelict	Owners refurbishing a vacant or derelict house
SEAI home energy grants Set per measure	Existing homes only
Development contribution waiver The levy itself	Work started by 31 December 2024

When each one pays out is in its section below.

A refund and a discount reduce what you pay but arrive on someone else’s timetable. Equity and a loan are other people’s money that you pay back. Only a grant is yours to keep, and no grant is available for a new build.

Help to Buy: a refund of tax you have paid

Help to Buy (HTB) refunds income tax and Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) you paid in the four full tax years before the year you apply. It is not extra money on top of your tax: if you paid €28,000 in eligible tax, the most you can get back is €28,000. The refund is the lowest of the scheme cap, 10% of the value your lender sets for the finished home, and the tax and DIRT you paid.

The cap depends on the date of your first mortgage drawdown. For a first self-build drawdown between 7 October 2026 and 31 December 2029 the maximum is €35,000 per property. Earlier drawdowns have lower caps of €30,000 and €20,000, so the date matters.

To qualify you must be a first-time buyer, and so must everyone named on the mortgage. The property must be newly built with VAT applying to the construction, that value must not exceed €500,000, and your mortgage alone must be at least 70% of the value your lender sets for the finished home (its valuation, which it tells you at approval in principle). First Home Scheme money does not count towards that 70%. You must live in the house as your main home for five years. A refurbishment of an existing house does not qualify, because the home must be newly built.

The refund arrives weeks or months after your first mortgage drawdown, into an account you hold with your mortgage provider, so you must pay the first stage of the build (usually foundations) from other money. A solicitor registered with Revenue must verify the claim. Read Help to Buy for self-builders and use the Help to Buy calculator before relying on a figure.

First Home Scheme: shared equity, not a gift

The First Home Scheme (FHS) has a self-build product. The scheme puts up part of the cost in return for a share in your home, which you pay back later at the then-current value. It can fund up to 30% of the build cost, or up to 20% if you also use Help to Buy. It covers the gap between your deposit plus mortgage and the build cost. You also need the lender’s usual 10% deposit (10% of the property value), and FHS money is not part of it: it must come from your own cash or a gifted site that the lender accepts as your contribution.

• It cannot pay for the site or for demolition. The equity share is calculated on the build cost only.
• Your build cost must be within the price ceiling for your local authority area. The scheme’s ceilings range from €375,000 in counties such as Carlow, Cavan and Tipperary to €500,000 in Dublin and Wicklow (Kerry is €425,000). The scheme says its ceilings are reviewed regularly and gives no effective date, so confirm your ceiling when you apply.
• Construction (including site clearance and groundworks) must not have started when you apply or when you sign the FHS contract. Planning permission must be in place before you sign.
• You have 12 months from signing to draw down and two years from drawdown to complete the build.
• The whole facility is drawn in a single transaction, after an architect’s or engineer’s certified report shows at least 50% of the build works are complete (the site and demolition are not counted). It cannot be increased if costs overrun.
• It can be combined with Help to Buy but not with the Local Authority Home Loan.

Because you give up part of the future value of your home, FHS is cheaper today and dearer later: on a sale, or when you buy the State out early (a redemption payment), you repay its share of the home’s value at that time. The mortgage guide has a worked example.

Local Authority Home Loan: a State-backed mortgage

The Local Authority Home Loan is a mortgage from your council, not a grant. It covers self-builds for first-time buyers and people starting again after a divorce, separation or insolvency. For a self-build it considers only new construction: a property already part-built when you apply is not eligible. Full planning permission is required, and you cannot opt out of Building Control sign-off (the legally required certification that the house meets the regulations).

The maximum borrowing depends on the route. On a site you own with planning, a fixed-price contract allows up to 95% of build cost and professional fees, and direct labour (you manage the trades yourself) 85%. On a site you are buying, the figures are 90% with a fixed-price contract and 80% with direct labour, of site cost, build cost and fees. Direct labour is at the council’s discretion and needs a supervising professional with professional indemnity insurance (cover for losses caused by their advice or supervision) of at least €1 million per claim.

The finished home’s market value must not exceed the limit for its area: €415,000 in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow; €375,000 in Cork and Meath; €345,000 in Clare, Galway county, Kilkenny, Limerick, Louth, Waterford, Westmeath and Wexford; and €310,000 in the remaining counties, including Kerry. Income limits also apply: find them on the Local Authority Home Loan eligibility page or ask your council’s housing loan team. See the mortgage guide for the full conditions.

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

Under Ready to Build, a local authority sells a serviced site (one with road, water and electricity connections in place) in a town or village to an individual at up to €30,000 below market value. The discount comes off the price, so there is nothing to claim afterwards. It is only available where a council has serviced and advertised sites, so most self-builders, who already own land, never see it.

You must build your own principal private residence on the site, you can buy only one site under the scheme, and you must apply for planning within three months of approval to buy. If you sell or move out within five years you repay all the discount, 75% of it between five and ten years, and nothing after ten. Read Ready to Build before you apply.

Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant: the one true grant

The Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant (also called Croí Cónaithe) is the one real grant here. It pays up to €50,000 for a house that has been vacant for at least two years and was built before 2008, and up to €70,000 if the house is confirmed derelict. The council sets the amount from the works it approves, so it can be lower than the maximum.

You apply and get written approval before any work starts. The council pays only on completion, after it checks your invoices and inspects the work, so you fund the works first. A ten-year clawback applies if you sell or stop living in or renting the house. Demolishing and rebuilding makes it a new build, which the grant excludes. If you are choosing between refurbishing and rebuilding, see renovate, extend or rebuild an old house and the full vacant property grant guide.

SEAI grants: mostly not for a new build

SEAI’s heat pump grant requires a home built and occupied before 2021, and its solar electricity grant a home built and occupied before 2025. A house you are building now fails both tests. New homes must instead meet the building regulations’ energy standard (Part L of the building regulations, which requires very low energy use), so the cost of a heat pump or solar panels belongs in your build budget. A renovation of an older house may qualify, but you need SEAI’s approval before work starts. See SEAI grants for a new home and heat pump for a new build.

The development contribution waiver has closed

The temporary waiver of council development contributions covered self-builds that started between 25 April 2023 and 31 December 2024. If you had not started by then it is not available, and the contribution condition in your planning permission applies in full. If you did get a waiver, you have until 31 December 2026 to finish the house, so ask the council now for written confirmation of what it needs as proof of completion (for example the date work started and a completion certificate); otherwise it invoices you for the waived amount. Some council schemes allow particular exemptions or reductions, so ask the contributions officer in writing. See the waiver guide.

What combines with what

• Help to Buy and the First Home Scheme can be used together. The FHS share then drops to 20%, and the 70% mortgage test for Help to Buy ignores the FHS money.
• The Local Authority Home Loan and the First Home Scheme cannot be used together. Choose between them on repayment cost, borrowing limit and income limit; the mortgage guide compares them.
• Ready to Build can be combined with any of the other supports. Ask the council’s housing department whether it has serviced sites on offer, and how a site fits with your funding.
• The vacant property grant and SEAI grants can be combined, but the same works cannot be paid twice.
• Help to Buy and a refurbishment do not mix, because the home must be newly built.

If you are paying without a mortgage, only Ready to Build (a council site) is likely to apply, and if you own your land none may. See building a house without a mortgage.

A worked example (invented figures)

Aoife and Dara are first-time buyers building on a site Dara’s parents have given them in County Kerry. The build is €320,000 including fees, and their lender has agreed in principle to lend (an approval in principle). They have paid €26,000 of income tax and DIRT between them over the four relevant tax years, and the lender will value the finished home at €420,000.

• Help to Buy: the three limits are €35,000, €42,000 (10% of the value) and €26,000 (tax paid). They can expect up to €26,000, paid after the first drawdown.
• First Home Scheme: with Help to Buy the share is up to 20% of the build cost, so up to €64,000. The build cost is within the scheme’s €425,000 ceiling for Kerry. They pay it back later as a share of the home’s value.
• Local Authority Home Loan: a possible alternative to a bank mortgage plus the First Home Scheme, subject to income limits. The home’s value would have to stay within the €310,000 limit that applies in Kerry, which a €420,000 valuation exceeds, so for them it is out.
• Ready to Build, the vacant property grant and SEAI: none applies, because the site is not a council site, the house is new and a new house fails SEAI’s age tests.

Only the Help to Buy refund goes into an account after the first drawdown, and the First Home Scheme money arrives only after half the build is certified complete. Neither pays for the first stages, so Aoife and Dara still need their own money, or short-term bridging finance, for the start of the build. The stage payment planner shows how big that gap is.

Mistakes that cost people their support

• Starting before you apply. Site clearance, groundworks or signing a build contract can rule out the First Home Scheme and the Local Authority Home Loan. Check every scheme before any of these.
• Counting a refund as cash in hand. Help to Buy is a refund of tax you have already paid. A contractor expecting a stage payment will not wait for Revenue.
• Assuming the maximum. Each headline figure is a ceiling. Help to Buy is limited by your tax, Ready to Build by the council’s servicing cost for that site, and the vacant property grant by the works the council approves.
• Using the wrong tax years. Help to Buy looks at the four full tax years before the year you apply. Income tax and DIRT count; USC and PRSI do not.
• Treating a family site as free money. A site gifted by parents can count toward the 10% deposit under the First Home Scheme if you meet the other criteria, but it is not cash for the builder, and gifts and inheritances can have tax consequences of their own. Ask a tax adviser.
• Forgetting the conditions that last for years. Ready to Build lets the council reclaim the discount if you sell or leave within ten years, Help to Buy needs five years living in the home, and the vacant property grant has a ten-year clawback. Selling, letting or moving out early can mean paying money back.

What is not on the list

None of the supports above pays for planning fees, architects, insulation or the build itself on a new home. VAT is in your contractors’ and suppliers’ invoices; the VAT guide explains what that means for your budget. Compare the lenders’ own products in the lender comparison.

Timing: what must happen before you start

Three of these supports can be lost by starting too early, and SEAI too if you are renovating.

1. First Home Scheme: construction must not have started when you apply or sign.
2. Local Authority Home Loan: a project already part-built when you apply is ineligible.
3. Vacant property grant: the council must approve the works in writing first.
4. SEAI (renovations only): approval comes before the installation starts.

Help to Buy has no such start rule, but its dates are tied to your first drawdown, so check them before you agree a drawdown date with the lender. Because the money from each scheme arrives at a different point, plan the gaps with the stage payment planner and read funding a gap in the build.

Your next steps

1. Run the grant checker with your answers.
2. Get an approval in principle (your lender’s written indication of how much it would lend) before you commit to any scheme that rests on a mortgage.
3. Read the guide for each scheme that applies, and confirm its figures with the scheme provider named in its guide.
4. Do not start work or sign a build contract until you have checked each scheme’s start rule.
5. Sort out insurance early: lenders usually want it in place before they release money.