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A VACANT PROPERTY tax will be introduced by government next year, according to Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien.
The government’s new housing plan launched today states that a review of the Local Property Tax returns in November will be carried out, “with a view to introducing a new Vacant Property Tax to ensure empty properties are used”.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said legislation will be brought in next year, with the tax being applied to vacant homes from the end of 2022, with payment collected in 2023.
Varadkar said it “might be possible” to collect the tax next year, but details are still being worked on.
Discussions around the introduction of such a tax took place in May, when the government scrambled to roll out measures to clip the wings of the investment funds buying up hundreds of properties and locking regular buyers out.
There has been particular anger at reports that high-end apartment blocks are lying idle, with the Business Post highlighting recently that in midst of a crisis 100 of the 190 apartments in the 22-storey Capital Dock near Grand Canal Dock in Dublin are vacant.
Following such reports, O’Brien said he wanted to target investment funds that have large swathes of apartments lying empty.
Multiples of the LPT
It is understood that such measures under consideration would see a multiple of the Local Property Tax (LPT) for apartments or houses that are left vacant could be used to deter landlords from leaving properties lying idle.
The new tax could see triple or quadruple levels of the Local Property Tax kicking in for houses or apartments that have been vacant for more than six months or 12 months, though the exact period is still under discussion.
When asked why the tax is not being introduced on Budget Day this year, the housing minister said the data on the numbers of vacant properties in Ireland is not very reliable.
The collection of the latest LPT information will show how many vacant properties there are in the State, why they are vacant and for how long they have been empty.
He stated that current data shows there are at least 9,500 properties are empty due to the owner being in long term care, for instance. However, he said there are many reasons why properties might be left vacant.
“We know it is an issue, this is going to be done, this will be done next year,” he said.
“We don’t don’t want to see any vacant properties. I believe it is immoral for funds or any other owner to leave homes vacant in the middle of a housing crisis,” said O’Brien.
“It is immoral during a housing crisis for anyone to leave a house or apartment vacant for a long period of time. We have to put a stop to that,” said Varadkar.
He said the Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe will have the final Bill ready on the new tax by Christmas, but after the Budget, with the Bill being introduced in the first quarter of next year.
The Taoiseach said introducing such a vacant property tax is a “very substantive decision”, adding that a lot of detailed work has to be done.
Vacant seizure would be a better option. Especially for vulture funds charging 3000 an apartment and leaving them empty instead of reducing the market rates
@Niall Dunne: “Vacant seizure” Calm down there comrade. Impossible to do thanks to our constitution. Even with a cpo you have to pay market rate for the property.
@Denis Ryan: I would argue for large scale transfer of private rentals to councils and tenants.
The same radical policies that the British conservative party did in Ireland in 1905 under the land acts
@Niall Dunne: I think the word radical sums up your argument here. Not going to happen.
@Trevor Wallace: housing is a generational issue. Your generation has an intrest in house prices staying high to avoid negative equity. But this means mine cannot afford a home, so we need to make a choice are we happy as a society to deprive our young of secure homes for the sake of the on paper wealth of the older generation? Thats why is driving our politics. Home owners voting FF and FG to keep prices high, renters voting SF and the rest to make housing affordable
@Niall Dunne: Nothing to do with what generation your in.
But since you brought it up, Doug’s generation could easily afford housing because of emigration ie demand decreasing.
Now I’m not allowed say it here but the logical opposite phenomenon to that is why house prices are so high.
And maybe overlay a graph of that phenomenon onto a graph of house prices since 1980 and they both line up perfectly, almost as if they are somehow connected
@Stiofán Mac Stáin: the only reason we are not emigrating is free market housing policies have made the same issues across the English speaking world, I would love to have been born 30 years earlier and been able to afford a secure home on a normal wage
@Niall Dunne: fancy restating your thoughts on old folk? You bottom feeder.
@owentighe: what? The view that if an older social housing tenants is in a 5 bed room house alone they should be moved to make way for a family that can untilise the entire home? How is that controversial? Thats actually the basis of the German system. When people retire they move out of city rentals making them available to younger workers who need to be in the city
@Niall Dunne: they raised their family their. They didn’t their life there. It’s their home. Go ask your nanny to finish washing your underpants.
@owentighe: you annoy me so much my spelling is awful. Apologies.
@owentighe: if someone raised their family in private rentals, got to 80 and the family moved out and can no longer pay the rent what would happen? They would have to move. Why should social tenants be treated different
Will this tax apply to County councils? They have plenty of vacant properties.
They can bring in legislation overnight when it suits them. They’re talking about introducing this sometime next year which in their language means never.
@Declan Doherty: well they have to insert loopholes for the institutional landlords so it won’t apply to them.
9500 homes vacant due to owners being in long term care, for example. Fix the problem these people and their families face, being unable to sell the property or take the easy way out and tax them cause their sitting ducks!
@Tony Harris: in fairness they are also addressing that
@Tony Harris: People in nursing homes should not be regarded as sitting ducks. They may well have to finance their care by selling their properties
@Tony Harris: people who own houses worth hundreds of thousands should only get state nursing care on the basis that they sell those homes to pay towards it. Otherwise the taxes of the screwed young rentier class are paying for the care of those worth possibly millions on paper
@Niall Dunne: Every thought of moving to China?
@Trevor Wallace: if I spoke Chinese I would. The quality of life for young people in Ireland is dire, becuase of housing
@Niall Dunne: Nice Niall, how’s about you work for nearly fifty years and as soon as you are elderly or infirm we will take your hard earned gains off you. The tax elderly people paid during their lives is what takes care if them not your “young renter* class”. Also you would not survive in China, way too soft and self centered.
@Denis Ryan: likely when Im 70, like most of my generation, I wont be able to retire as rent will still have to be paid.
And if an 80 who bought in the 70s has a house worth half a million thats not a hard earned gain. They literally got that value by watching prices rise
@Niall Dunne: Listen, you need to get off your high horse about the elderly .. If some one is 70, they have been paying taxes longer that you have been born and they are as entitled to state services as anyone.
What the hell do you think has paid for the infrastructure that is all ready in the country, it certainly wasn’t your generation. My Father is 80 has Parkinsons and is still working everyday today. He had to pay 70% income tax for large periods of his life, he has worked all his life and contributed to the state when there was very few doing so. He had 2 businesses go to the wall with recessions, but he managed to stand up again and pay off his debts. He paid for me to go to college, we could get no grants, I had 2 part time jobs. None of my family or I have ever been on the dole or got a handout from the state.
@Da Dell: if an 80 year old lives in a 5 bed social house alone thats bad policy. They should be moved to a smaller place and a family that would fill that put in their place. Social housing is not a tentants property, its a social service and it is important to utilise it to its full. The older generation in this country and loaded so I’ll spare violins
@Niall Dunne: you really hate old people don’t you? Odious does not come near your toxicity.
@Niall Dunne: say that to my face you tool
@owentighe: no hatred? Whats wrong with the idea of empty rooms being given to families who are in much greater need?
@Niall Dunne: you just don’t get it do you?
@owentighe: no. I dont get the logic in housing owned by local authority’s lying almost empty while families are on the housing list
@Niall Dunne: Yeah I starting to see that you despise people that have worked all their lives, were prudent saved money for their retirement. Your folks must be very proud of ya. God help you for when you get older if there more people out there that thing like you now. You have seriously changed my mind. Now I am all favor of forcing you to live somewhere you can afford, see how you like the shoe on the other foot. I suppose you haven’t ever noticed that many working in Dublin are not from Dublin, who commute. You remind me of the the many I noticed from the spawn of the Celtic Tiger generation, with their new cars, phones, designer clothes, who expect everything for almost noting while not expecting to have to work hard, like the type that went to Oz and in a few years ruined the Irish reputation of being honest hard workers that was earned over many many decades. Good day sir.
@Da Dell: all studies show that in line with inflation wages are lower now then in the 80s. Also productivity has tripled since the 1970s. So young people actually work harder, for less money. My points are if social housing was desinged for a family and now lies almost empty with an elderly person in it then that home should be used to house a family instead. If a person has a home worth 500,000, they should not be allowed free nursing care while that house lies empty. Instead a condition of elderly care should be to sell the home or perhaps give it to the council in repsonse to free nursing care for life. These are common sense ideas. Better then a house lying empty or a old person getting thousands in rent while the taxpayer pays for their needs
@Da Dell: We don’t see eye to eye often Da Dell but I wish I could like your last comment more. Niall is the very definition of entitled attitude.
@Denis Ryan: is the idea that by working I should be able to afford secure housing entitled?
Is the idea of action of vacant homes of those in care and the under utilization of social housing in a housing emergecy so wrong?
Maybe if you where faced with renting for life due to forces outside your control you might understand the urgency for extreme measures
@Niall Dunne: The tripling of productivity since the seventies has more to do with better processes and better equipment rather than human output. No one now is working three times harder than fifty years ago.
@Denis Ryan: 50 years ago people went on strike if made to work a minute past their finishing time. 50 years over time paid time and a half, 50 years ago minimum wage could house, feed and clothe a family. We certainly work harder for less, the reason is the unions lost their power so workers no longer have bargaining
@Denis Ryan: so if they hand over their asset worth €500,000 and only live for a year in social care what happens to the balance of their equity.
@Denis Ryan: again, we are returning to the main point. When we view housing in terms of assets and equity we end up with under utilization and housing crises. Housing should be driven by indivudial needs. I would argue if someone dies after a year in a nursing home, the value of their property should mean nothing to them. As, they are dead
@Niall Dunne: Right, so there is no reaching you, just another complainer who will also have his hand in someone else’s pocket.
@Denis Ryan: Ive not taken any hand outs. I work full time, I had part time jobs in school and college, same as anyone. What this whole thing is about is that in our country today people who work hard like that can no longer afford to get by. They are forced into house shares and have no prospects of owning a home. This is the crisis, and it seems completly lost on older people.
@Niall Dunne: They are dead but is their partner, keep going Niall bet you will be first in the door of the solicitors office when a love one dies if there is something in the will for you.
@Niall Dunne: does this not happen in part already where a percentage of their home is taken from their property after they die?
@Denis Ryan: can I ask you why you feel the need to view a house as primarily an asset instead of somewhere for people to live?
Surely you can see that if we provided housing for people based on need instead of based on their wallet it would solve so many social problems in our society?
@Niall Dunne: google the fair policy care homes use. Basically the vacant house can not be sold till the care home residents die, then the care home gets their cut. Hence vacant property
@Niall Dunne: Niall, google how care homes operate. They take a % of the value of the privately own property once the old timer passed away. House lies vacant until that time. Hence, vacant property. Do a bit of research will u….
@Niall Dunne: most of these elderly people worked hard all their lives and payed their taxes throughout their working lives so they are entitled to be looked after by the state, you sound like an entitled person who wants everything handed to them.
@Niall Dunne: so people who have paid taxes their whole lives and had the wisdom to buy their own home over 25 or 30 years should not be entitled to social welfare while others who have contributed for 3 or 4 years should basiclly get the house the old person worked all their lives for.
Wow the comments were scrubbed.
Just to restate my response to the bottom feader who recons old people should not be allowed to stay in their own homes, which they bought and lived in all their lives, and be moved to one bed flats, get lost.
@owentighe: I never once said people who own should be moved. Im talking about social housing. We have 90 year old widows in 5 bed social houses alone while families live in hotels. The social house, which is owned by the local authorty, would be better served by housing that family
@Niall Dunne: so somebody in social housing who lived there fifty years, raised their family should be moved to make room fir a new family?!!!! I’ll leave you to your fantasy world. Bye.
@owentighe: yes. Absolutely. Its not their home, its the local authority’s. The key would be to make smaller housing units for older people in their communities. But no, a social housing tenant, who got a house to house a family of 5 should not remain in it as a single person while families are currently on the list. That’s common sense.
@Niall Dunne:
People who are living in hotel rooms should be thankful they have a warm bed to sleep in at night out of the freezing weather and rain.
@Just Some Guy: it is a failure of any civilised society to have full families living in a hotel.
@owentighe: Actually I’m pretty sure this happens in the UK. If you are a social housing tenant you have to pay a bedroom tax. I agree that people should be downsized as and when the time comes, albeit re-homed within the same community. Housing Associations in London are building excellent homes, a mixture of houses and apartments. My aunt moved to one such apartment. She gave up her large 3 bed house when her sons were grown and moved into a 2 bed apartment in a brand new development. The social housing homes were allocated specifically for over 55s and there is a great mix of private and social housing residents. She loves her new modern and easy to maintain home. The key is certainly however re-homing people within their community though.
@Shauneen Agnew: I mean this for tenants of social housing. Private homeowners own their home and it is theirs to do as they please, most of these homes are for the children or grandchildren to inherit
@Shauneen Agnew: your correct. Also in London long term unemployed and those with long term illness that means they cannot work are re housed in other cities to make space for people whose jobs means they have to be in the city. And if they refused the move they lost their right to social housing.
Will this tax apply to County councils? They have plenty of vacant properties
Window dressing. They brought it in before but left in loopholes. FF-FG will do the same this time. A leopard never changes its spots.
Immoral ?
Didn’t fg and Kenny once say ” it’s immoral and wrong to tax a person’s home”
This I’m not apposed to…
I think it is immoral to tax any home, particularly when there’s a massive mortgage on it, and no tax relief at source. Thanks
@Joe Kelly: lol. This is not about homes. Homes are not left vacant. This is mainly people buying houses and not renting them out, largely to create a shortage that increase rents
Irish people have a lot to answer for in our housing situation. The comments here prove it. In the recession we blocked any type of reposession from those who bought houses they couldnt afford. End result, this drove up prices but stopping supply. Now we talk about taxing under used and empty property at a time families live in hotels and bedsits and people lose their mind. Newsflash, owning an “asset” to play with should not come before the social need to provide adequate housing for our people. Too many see this place as an economy and not a society
Surely we already had such a law? Wasn’t it brought in during the last recession, when buildings in Temple Bar were crumbling into the streets?
@Fiona Fitzgerald: no that was a 2nd home tax, if i remember correctly,.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: it was after the recession before that one! Recession 3: Charlie’ll sort it, I believe was the full title. Rather long one that. Recession 4: Renard’s Curse was the one before now.
Vacant tax. Are you serious. Look at the vacant house in the ministers constituency of Fingal first.
@Adrian Aungier: in a housing emergency, its should be financially crippling to leave a house empty.
Nothing stopping people from selling, unless you’re talking about them selling, keeping all the proceeds and having everyone else pay the full cost of their care
How will it work where a property has three rentals and one is not rented? The property isn’t vacant
@Craic_a_tower: then its 4 properties.
@Niall Dunne: odious self centered tool
@Niall Dunne: odious
@Niall Dunne: one property separated into 3 rentals is still one property. One needs massive work and tradesmen are hard to find. Do you tax the one rental as vacant property? It is now where I keep my chairs so it isn’t vacant but storage as I changed the use. Still not 4 properties no matter what maths you are trying
@Craic_a_tower: the only sitation its not 4 properties is if you are refering to an empty room. If you have 4 flats and one is empty a vacant tax should apply.
@Niall Dunne: where are you getting 4 from? It is one building broken into 3 flats. I decide not to rent one because it was so damaged by the last tenant and I use it as storage now. How can the government make me rent it? It isn’t vacant as a property, revenue doesn’t allow the flats to be deemed separate properties so how is it vacant? I get you just want to punish landlords as much as possible but we have rights too
@Craic_a_tower: bring in the 3 Fs of the land league and we can talk about landlords rights.
@Niall Dunne: how do you operate in society while you live in the past? How do you know the rent I charge isn’t fair? People don’t lose their rights until somebody else gets their demands. Landlords are people and the government doesn’t get to dictate who gets to own what something the land league fought for. It was freedom to own not a communist state. It also relates to farmlands not property as such. Should read a history book. Either way you can’t change it as there is our constitution and EU law.
@Craic_a_tower: we don’t have freedom to own anymore. No one can afford to own. My generations right to have a secure community and home to live in is more important then your right to own multiple properties. People are getting more radical, do something now for the dispossessed youth or watch the radical left and actual anti landlord policies emerge.
@Craic_a_tower: short of a lottery win I will never own a home in Dublin. So my only option for a secure home is social housing or cost rental. Excuse me if I wont feel sorry to the plight of those with multiple houses who make it impossible for people to stay in long term or even have a pet
It is grossly immoral to tax an elderly person in a Care Home or hospital, on an apparently vacant home they worked all their lives for.
@Liz O’Neill: lets be real. Someone who is now 80, likely bought in the 60s, for 200 pound. And paid off that mortgage over 30 years ago. Thats not working all their lives for it. We cannot have on one hand private property rights above all else while on the other hand half the country living in insecure private rentals. We have to prioritise needs
Presuming a house for sale can’t be taxed, you can just put it on sale for way over the price it’s worth. Surely that’ll sort it out.
92,135 vacant residential properties across Ireland in June https://t.co/u2wSSoXrOw
Yet some how they didn’t know this?? A vacant property tax should of been front and center of housing for all! Extremely disappointing
I would be scrapping social housing altogether and introduce a cap on rents.
@Joey Van Der Byrne: why in gods name would you do that? Housings base cost in Dublin is around 300,000. This means most people are now locked out. So your answer is to remove the only non for profit way to provide these people with housing? What will hapen if you force more into the rental market? Same thats already happening, landlords turning living rooms into bed rooms to fit more in
The CSO first reported in 2016 the Geo directory reported in June! 92,135 vacant residential properties across Ireland this June
To say they have no idea is complete nonsense!
Residential Property tax will be solved here in Ireland sooner or later. But what about Commercial Property Tax? In the rest of Europe, the owner of vacant commercial properties like shops, pubs, restaurants, offices, hotels and the likes all pay the normal commetcial tax, a vacant property tax which is a large percentage of the earnings the Tax Authorities would have been paid, had the above commercial properties
It’s a pity the conversation has devolved into discussing people in care.
Apparentl the figures for empty, actual empty properties is around the 100k+ mark.
It’s very easy to start with properties not owner occupied.
have your say