Monday 4th November, 2024
No Sign Of Dynamic Housing Policy As Election Looms - IPAV
With the Finance Bill going through the Dáil and a general election likely to be called within days there is no sign yet that housing policy is going to move from incremental or piecemeal change to a more dynamic phase, IPAV, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers, said on Monday.
Speaking ahead of the organisation’s European Valuation conference to be held at the RDS, Dublin on Tuesday, Pat Davitt IPAV’s Chief Executive said the lack of supply of homes dominates the residential sector while the green agenda is more to the fore in the commercial sector.
“From a policy perspective looking at how each responds to the challenges faced is instructive,” he said. “The commercial sector of its nature is more agile in responding to market demands, it is life or death, and the sector right now knows the green agenda is crucial to success and is adapting well.”
He said the residential sector, on the other hand, “involves an almost unending chain of influencers and players, many not publicly known and several with little knowledge or understanding of the market, as evidenced by ineffective measures to deal with, for example, vacant buildings and homes.”
Mr Davitt said there are 30,000 commercial buildings vacant throughout the country and a national residential vacancy rate of 3.9% at the end of Q2 2024, according to GEODirectory.
“These are appallingly high figures with great potential to provide homes, if public policy incentivised owners to put these properties on the market or convert them from commercial to residential use.” He said the recent Budget increased the Vacant Homes Tax from 5 to 7 times the property’s existing base Local Property Tax rate. “But what we need is positive incentives, not negative ones such as this,” he said. “The very high rate of Capital Gains Tax at 33% creates a real disincentive for owners to dispose of such properties.”
And he said one has to question why there has been so little attention paid to the findings of the Housing Commission, set up by the Government, a commitment in the current and expiring Programme for Government, comprising a wide range of experts working over a two-year period to deliver its report in May of this year.
Mr Davitt pointed to a key Commission recommendation - that of establishing a time-limited Housing Delivery Oversight Executive in legislation as a decision-making body responsible for coordinating the delivery of housing.
“Such a structure is badly needed to bring coherence to housing policy, residential in particular, across Government Departments, and to fast track actions,” he said.
“However, one has to be deeply sceptical that this recommendation will ever see the light of day, given that it has been kicked into an inter-Departmental Committee, some members of whom, even if we knew who they were, could see the proposed structure as a challenge to their own authority, even though it would be unlikely to ever challenge their positions.”
IPAV Conference
IPAV’s valuation conference will hear presentations from, among others, Philippe Guillerm, Deputy MD at Cushman & Wakefield Valuation, France who will speak on how the green agenda is impacting property values.
Cathal Lawlor of Lawlor Partners, Solicitors and Chartered Tax Advisers, will deliver a presentation on property, inheritance and optimum tax planning for families.
Other speakers include Jeremy Moody, an international expert on agricultural law and tenancies and Jim Power, Economist.
IPAV introduced the European Blue Book Valuation standards for property to Ireland in 2013. This Valuation standard holds default status with the Irish and European Central Banks in the event of a dispute arising. The 2025 updated Blue Book has just been published by TEGOVA, a pan-European association of professional bodies working for standards, ethics and quality in the real estate valuation market.
Ends