TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS has denied the Government is performing a U-turn when it comes to increasing stamp duty on homes bulk-purchased by vulture funds.

It comes after a Fine Gael junior minister called for the tax to be doubled from 10% to 20% in Budget 2025, which will be announced on 1 October. 

In January, the government opposed a Sinn Fein motion to increase such stamp duty on so-called vulture funds by 17%, after then-Minister for Finance Michael McGrath received agreement from Cabinet to counter the motion. 

However, speaking on RTÉ’s This Week programme on Sunday, Junior Minister Neale Richmond said the current 10% stamp duty isn’t going far enough to discourage the bulk-buying of homes by investment funds. 

The Minister of State at the Department of Finance said the Government “have to keep policies always under constant review”. 

“This stamp duty rate that was introduced has worked to an extent. It’s slowed down the amount of bulk purchases, but it hasn’t worked completely,” Richmond said. 

When asked if Fine Gael were dressing a Sinn Féin motion as its own, he insisted that “things have changed”.

“What the Minister at the time said is that he had no intention at that stage of introducing it, but we’re eight months on,” he said.

“We have to be able to be flexible with our policies, we have to see where more can be done and ultimately, budgetary proposals shouldn’t be made in January.”

Richmond also said he had raised the matter with Taoiseach Simon Harris, and intended to raise it with Finance Minister Jack Chambers this week.

‘Opposite’ of u-turn

When asked about the matter today, the Taoiseach said it was “quite the opposite” of a u-turn and that it was important to keep the issue of stamp duty under review. 

“It’s an appropriate way to do things, as I’ve consistently said in the Dáil since becoming Taoiseach,” Harris said.

“If you make changes to taxation, you generally do it through the budgetary process. Obviously, the three parties in Government will decide how best to address this, and the budget will be delivered on 1 October.

“It’s a statement of fact, and I would have said it many times since becoming leader of my party and Taoiseach, that we do need to keep the issue of stamp duty constantly under review.”

Harris called for taxation and planning around the bulk-purchasing of homes to be reviewed in May. 

He said he was pleased at the measures that the Government has taken to try and tackle the issue of bulk buying and vulture funds.

“But we’ve also said, consistently across all three parties, that those measures must always be kept under review.”

Harris said he wrote to the Department of Finance about the matter “quite a period of time ago”, who confirmed that they are carrying out a review.

“We need to make sure every single tool at our disposal is being effectively used, and we always need to keep these matters under review,” he said, adding that he hoped to see progress on the matter in Budget 2025.

Currently, the standard rates of stamp duty on residential property are 1% on values up to €1 million and 2% on values exceeding €1 million.

A higher 10% rate of duty comes in when someone acquires at least 10 properties during any 12-month period.

In May 2021 the government introduced a 10% stamp duty on the bulk purchase of family homes by investment funds. 

However, in July 2021, the Government passed a controversial amendment to allow funds to side-step the 10% stamp duty if they lease homes back to the State for social housing.