The Ministry for Finance has announced that with effect from 09/06/2020, the exemption applicable to First time buyers (whereby they do not pay any duty on the first Eur200,000), is being amended in order to include also those persons who are already owners of a garage of not more than 30m2 and want to purchase their first residential property.

Thus, any person who wants to purchase his/her first residential property can do so even if he/she already owns a garage (of not more than 30m2).

On the other hand, all those individuals who had already signed their contract after 09/06/2020 and are eligible for this scheme, should be able to ask for a refund of the stamp duty paid on their contract. Thus, all those individuals who are entitled to a refund are being asked to send an email to the Tax Department on [email protected] or call on 22998110.

The first time buyers scheme whereby first time buyers were exempt from paying stamp duty on the first Eur175,000 is being extended until the end of 2021, with the exemption amount also increasing to Eur200,000, meaning a Eur7,000 tax reduction for first time buyers.

Similary, the covid measure tax incentives on the contracts of sale of immovable property has also been extended till the end of the year 2021 (as long as the promise of sale agreement is published before end of March 2021).