Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien says there will be no extension to waiver that saves self-builders thousands of euros until the next government is elected.
In this article we cover:
- What is the waiver that saves self-builders thousands of euros
- Deadline extension for completion
- Decision not to extend the waiver
- Prospects that the waiver could be extended in future
- Petition to extend the waiver indefinitely for self-builders
The development contribution waiver will not be extended, nor will the refunds to Irish Water connection charges, until the next government is elected, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said at his Budget 2025 press conference.
Not having to pay Section 48 contributions can represent savings of tens of thousands of euros for self-builders, depending on where they are building.
“The measures worked really well … particularly, it made a big difference to those who were building individual homes and paying for it themselves.” – Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien
The Minister added that self-builders would have an extra year to finish their project, until the 31st of December 2026. The scheme originally required the house to be completed by the end of 2025.
The development levy waiver lapses at the end of this year, on the 31st of December 2024.
You need to have “commenced on site” before the end of the year to qualify for the waiver. If you qualify, your local authority simply won’t charge you for the Section 48 development levy.
As per the guidance document issued to local authorities: “Commencement notices which are submitted for site clearance or site enabling works only will not be sufficient for purposes of qualifying for the waiver. Only the submission of a subsequent formal commencement notice will be generally deemed acceptable for the purposes of being approved for the waiver.”
The refund for Irish Water connection fees will lapse at the end of October 2024. Currently, self-builders must pay for the connection fees and apply for reimbursement.
No extension to waiver
“There will be no extension of the development levy waiver,” said Minister Darragh O’Brien at his Budget 2025 press conference.
“The measures worked really well,” he said, “particularly, it made a big difference to those who were building individual homes and paying for it themselves.”
“I always said it would be a temporary measure, particularly looking at a time when we were seeing quite a significant increase in cost. It is a costly measure too.”
“It was also an activation measure and I think we have seen in the last 12 months about 15,000 homes commenced. And a part of the reason for that was the fact that we were able to reduce the cost of developments” thanks to the development levy waiver and refunding Irish Water charges, he added.
“It’s not for me to extend it into next year. I’m not proposing to do that,” he said. “I would imagine that whatever government comes in post election, that could be a measure that could be looked at.”
“But I’m not going to tie any future government to that, I’ve always said it would be time-bound. It’s worked well.”
Petition
Selfbuild has set up a petition to extend the waiver indefinitely for self-builders; at the time of publishing this article over 2,200 people had signed the petition.
