This morning.
Leinster House, Dublin 2.
Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin, carrying a thoroughly-notated copy of the government’s Housing for All programme, speaks to media on the plinth at Leinster House.
Meanwhile…
“We currently have 90,000 vacant homes across the State. If you want to deliver more social and affordable homes next year then don’t just build more, but buy and refurbish vacant and derelict homes on real scale.” – @EOBroin on #RTEPT #HousingCrisis #HousingForAll pic.twitter.com/gmvOtLMqdg
— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) September 3, 2021
Last night.
Earlier: Build Back Bitterer
Meanwhile…
The introduction of a vacant home tax has been promised for years. Despite this, the Govt kicked the can down the road … yet again.
“We don’t need more data on this. We need action,” says @OCallaghanCian on @morningireland.
— Social Democrats (@SocDems) September 3, 2021
Meanwhile…
Some people didn't do their homework and are going to fail…#HousingForAll@EOBroin @DarraghOBrienTD pic.twitter.com/DHALjImkQq
— Peter Reid (@peterkinvara) September 3, 2021
Ah here.
not enough money for their pals in refurbished homes
all about who you choose to help
These.
Short term gains: A vacant home tax; a buy and refurbish scheme.
Longer Term gains: and a vacant property.
Tabbing out a report to make it look like you’ve really read it is the oldest trick in the book.
Ah – no it’s not. Link please
Panty Christ, I far prefer to see people who’ve mastered their subject matter coming in to me with their dog-eared postit infested documents than “goodnewsstory” PR merchants with sausagey fingers and zero vocational interest in their work
at least O’Broin is trying his best and has actual belief in his theory
The sooner O’Broin becomes Housing Minister the better
Hear, hear.
I don’t seem to be able to find the definition of “vacant property” or how they would decide which properties would be taxed. I could, for example, have a 16 year old child and a second home. I might want that child to move in to the house when they turn 18 but not want the hassle of renting it out in the meantime. It could belong to a person in hospital or care who might be able to return to it. It could be in probate. It could be half refurbished but the owner hasn’t got the money at the minute to finish it. It’s all a lot of old flannel – only a very few properties will end up being taxed.
“I might want that child to move in to the house when they turn 18 but not want the hassle of renting it out in the meantime.”
So youre keeping it vacant and deliberately keeping it so because you have future plans. About as valid as a property speculator. Its vacant and should be taxed.
“It could belong to a person in hospital or care who might be able to return to it.”
If its their PPR, its not vacant.
“It could be in probate.”
Whilst in probate, not vacant.
“It could be half refurbished but the owner hasn’t got the money at the minute to finish it.”
If you cant afford to refurbish it, you should sell it to someone who can! Lack of money is no excuse to hoard vacant properties!
What utopia do you live in? Unless the property is derelict you pay LPT on it anyway. So then it comes down to the definition of vacant which nobody seems to know. Throw a bed and some furniture in there and say you or relatives use it at the weekends. Not vacant.
And as for suggesting that you could be forced to sell a property because you’re short of money to do it up? Really? If some local council told me that I had to sell my house I would make damn sure that the last people on earth I’d sell it to was them
the wild west of Europe
One thing I don’t understand is why there is not more financial incentives for empty nesters- meaning older people- to downsize.
In the UK, especially the south of England, they have great deals for older people to move into retirement residential blocks under shared ownership schemes, which means they can have a decent quality of life, and free up a family home too.
Maybe there is such schemes here, but I can’t find them?
Eoin O Broin has a point. We should be working smarter, not building from scratch if not necessary.
Longford, Roscommon and the likes have more vacant houses in the countryside than occupied. Thousands of 3 room cottages with slab floors, no insulation and old style septic tanks are being used to store farm equipment. The idea that even half the vacant in the country could be economically refurbished as social housing is madness.
Inherited the family home after parent passed away (I lived there all my life) in a ‘disadvantaged area’ in a well established housing estate. Was moving in with partner and went to council to enquire if they wanted to purchase. Would not have been big money considering the area. They came back with a flat no. (Didn’t even ask about price). The same area has had houses knocked and are currently under plans to build new.
Makes no sense.
Interesting study done in 2018.
https://assets.gov.ie/4096/101218110143-ac37c2beecf14fa7b51594b3756cd4e1.pdf
It concluded that such a tax was not appropriate, interesting primarily because A detailed evidence-based assessment of vacancy rates in areas of the country in which the demand for housing is most acute, suggests that the headline vacancy rate in these areas is significantly lower than the national average and has fallen very significantly in recent years.. The available evidence suggests that there is limited scope for a vacant property tax to bring significant numbers of currently vacant properties back into the housing supply in the areas of the country in which demand for housing is most acute and it could represent a distraction from the key policy challenge of addressing underlying supply.
It would be interesting to see if the situation has changed greatly in that respect
Authored by Indecon, a consultancy much favoured by Government and a former employer of the €290,000 Civil Servant, Robert Watt.
I don’t really care who wrote it or what vested interest they may have – I’d just like to know if that statement was true then and if it has changed since.