Buying a house from a family member in Ireland

Buying from a parent, a brother or a sister feels simpler than buying from a stranger. In law it is the same sale, with two extra questions: what is the home worth, and what is the gap between that and the price? The gap is a gift, and gifts have tax rules. This guide takes you through the value, the gift, the stamp duty, the lender and why each side needs its own solicitor.

Why the price and the value are two different numbers

In an ordinary sale the price is the value, because a stranger paid it. In a family sale the price is whatever you agree. Revenue, the lender and the law look at the market value instead: what the home would fetch between a willing buyer and a willing seller who are not related.

So a family sale always starts with a valuation. A valuer (an agent with a PSRA licence, or a chartered surveyor on the SCSI's register) inspects the home and writes down a figure. Read about the valuer. That figure runs through everything below.

The gift: how capital acquisitions tax works

Capital acquisitions tax (CAT, see the glossary) is the tax on gifts and inheritances. If you buy a home worth €400,000 from your parents for €300,000, you have received a gift of €100,000.

The rules work like this.

• Each person has a lifetime threshold for gifts and inheritances from each group of giver. Group A is from a parent to a child. The group A threshold is €400,000 as of Budget 2025; check Revenue's current figure, as it changes at budgets.
• Gifts from the same group add up over your life. A €100,000 gift now uses €100,000 of the threshold, leaving less for a later gift or inheritance from the same parent.
• The first €3,000 from any one person in a year is exempt under the small gift exemption; check Revenue's current figure.
• Gifts above the threshold are taxed at the CAT rate. Revenue's page gives the rate and the rules on when to file.
• A gift from a sibling, or an aunt or uncle, falls into group B, with a much lower threshold.

This guide describes the mechanism. Revenue's capital acquisitions tax pages have the current thresholds and the rate. Where a gift is large, each side's solicitor may bring in a tax advisor.

A worked example

Ciara's parents own a house valued at €380,000. They sell it to her for €280,000.

• The gift is €100,000: the value less the price.
• Ciara has had no earlier gifts from her parents. The gift sits within the group A threshold (€400,000 at Budget 2025; verify), so no CAT is due now. It uses €100,000 of that lifetime threshold.
• Stamp duty is charged on the market value: 1% of €380,000, which is €3,800. Not 1% of €280,000.
• Ciara's lender values the house at €380,000. Her loan is 90% of the price she pays, €252,000, if the lender counts the gift as her deposit. Her cash deposit is €28,000.

A CAT return is still needed where a gift, with any earlier gifts in the group, goes over 80% of the threshold. Ciara's does not, but Revenue's page sets out when to file.

Stamp duty on the value, not the price

Stamp duty is the tax on buying property. Where a home is sold for less than it is worth to a connected person, the duty is charged on the market value. The rates since 2 October 2024 are 1% up to €1 million, 2% on the part from €1 million to €1.5 million and 6% above. There is no relief for family sales and no first-time buyer exemption. Read stamp duty.

Your solicitor files the return and pays the duty within 44 days, using the valuation as the figure. The stamp duty calculator shows the duty at any value.

The lender's view

A lender sees a family sale as a home loan like any other, with a few extra checks.

• The valuation. The lender sends its own valuer, about €185. The loan is up to 90% of the lower of the price and the value. Read the mortgage valuation guide.
• The deposit. Many lenders accept the family discount as your deposit. The home is worth €380,000, you pay €280,000, and the €100,000 difference stands in for cash. Each lender has its own policy, and some want a cash deposit as well. Read how much deposit you need.
• The gift letter. The lender wants a signed letter from your parents saying the discount is a gift, not a loan, and that they will have no interest in the home. Read the gift letter guide.
• The Central Bank limits. 4 times your gross income as a first-time buyer, 3.5 times otherwise. The gift does not change the income limit. Read the Central Bank rules.
• Your parents staying on. If the seller will keep living in the home, the lender needs to know, and it may refuse. A lender wants vacant possession on closing.

A broker (on the Central Bank's register) can tell you which lenders accept a gift of equity as a deposit; read about the mortgage advisor.

Capital gains tax for the family member selling

Capital gains tax (CGT) is the seller's tax on the rise in a home's value. Because you and the seller are connected persons, Revenue works out the seller's gain on the market value, not the price. Selling to you for less does not reduce their tax.

If the home was the seller's only or main home for the whole time they owned it, principal private residence relief covers the gain in full, and no CGT is due. If it was let, or was a second home, part or all of the gain is taxed. The rate is 33%, with 31% announced in Budget 2027 for disposals from 7 October 2026, waiting on the Finance Act 2026 (see changes). Read capital gains tax when selling and principal private residence relief. The CGT calculator works the seller's figure.

Each side its own solicitor

One solicitor cannot act for both the buyer and the seller in a sale. The Law Society's rules say so, because the two sides have different interests, even in a family. Each of you instructs your own solicitor (check the Law Society's register) and pays their own fee, typically €1,500 to €3,000 plus VAT for a purchase. Read about the conveyancing solicitor.

Two solicitors also protect the sale. A sibling may later say the home was sold for too little, or a lender or Revenue may ask questions. The file then shows that each side had independent advice and that the value was set by a valuer.

Other things that come up

• Siblings. If your parents give one child a large gift through a sale, the others may expect the will to balance it. That is a family matter, but a solicitor can note the gift in the will.
• A right of residence. A parent who sells and stays on may want a right to live there for life written into the deeds. A lender may not accept a mortgage on a home with such a right. Raise it before the loan application.
• Help to Buy and the First Home Scheme. Both are for new builds from a qualifying contractor, or self-builds. A second-hand family home does not qualify.
• Local Property Tax. The owner on 1 November pays for the next year. Your solicitor checks it is paid to the date of sale. Read LPT for a new owner.
• A home you have been living in. If you have been renting from your parents, the tenancy ends on closing, and any rent paid is not a deposit unless the contract says so.

Where this leaves you

Get a written valuation first, because every figure follows from it: the gift, the stamp duty and the loan. Run that value through the stamp duty calculator. Then each side picks its own solicitor; get quotes puts you in touch with one for your side. The first-time buyer journey covers the mortgage and the closing in the same order as any other purchase.