Howitzer & Kal, I don't entirely agree with you. I've met young Irish people who literally think buying a house is like buying a piece of furniture, and they are so caught up in the complexity of buying a house that they don't understand all the implications. This I don't agree is through ignorance or stupidity. It easy for people on AAM who are experts on taxes/laws/compliance to know what to do but for others it's not so easy. I do my best to try to understand all the tax/laws/compliance issues myself but it's a complete maze and it changes every few years just for the fun of it, it seems. (Part of the reason I use AAM is to learn, and nearly every week I learn something new.) Even getting a mortgage from a bank is in most cases a nightmare. People are just doing their best to get on the property ladder and I feel sorry for those people who buy a 2 bed apartment with no stamp duty, change job, move and have to buy elsewhere and then get caught with stamp duty claw back, and they now probably have to buy a house to house a family at even more expense plus stamp duty on this as they've lost their first time buyer status.
Actually I don't think the no stamp duty for FTB helps them at all in the first place. Mortgage interest relief would probably be more beneficial as it would hit the bottom line - their monthly pay packet.
Maybe when people purchase they should have to sign a document that they understand the tax issues/claw back of stamp duty etc if they decide to sell in the future, I'm sure this info gets lost in the huge transaction that is a property purchase.