Another question from me, we are in the process of buying(hopefully), we bought a house in 1995 through shared ownership with co council, we sold it in 1997. We have'nt owned a property since. Are you classed as a FTB after a period of time or am I just imagining that I saw this somewhere.
You are not a FTB for stamp duty purposes. If you are not buying a new home under 125sqm or a second hand house under €127K then SD is relevant. If you did not claim your full 7 years of owner occupier mortgage interest relief then you are still a FTB for interest relief purposes for whatever remains of that period.
WE were not well informed at the time, council were a disaster to deal with, eleven years ago there was'nt the same information available as there is now, sounds daft i know.
Fair enough. You're probably better off claiming it these days anyway since the FTB period is now 7 instead of 5 years and the rates of relief are much higher.