Thousands of properties lie vacant around Ireland – taxing them would be one step towards solving the housing crisis
HOMELESSNESS in Ireland is at a record high - at a time when tens of thousands of homes lie idle.
Census figures recorded 166,000 vacant properties in Ireland, with over 48,000 vacant for at least six years.
With 10,568 people in homelessness last month, a record high, it’s essential that measures are introduced in Tuesday’s budget to tackle the issue.
While a vacant homes tax has long been promised by successive governments it never materialised.
Unsurprisingly, this lack of action has coincided with rising homelessness - with the numbers in emergency accommodation increasing by 30 per cent in the past year.
Child homelessness is also up by 47 per cent during the same period.
Homeless campaigners at Peter McVerry Trust say that a vacancy tax would help address the lack of homes available, whilst also tackling the issue of dereliction, which contributes to anti-social behaviour.
Here FRANCIS DOHERTY, Director of Communications at Peter McVerry Trust, explains why the Government needs to act now to introduce a vacancy tax.
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THE presence of derelict and vacant properties is an issue that generates strong reactions in many of us.
Day after day we walk past buildings in our towns and cities falling into ever greater states of disrepair and yet too little seems to happen or change.
Communities are blighted by their very presence, anti-social behaviour is given an obvious base, the frontline services of the Gardai and Fire Brigade are unnecessarily spending time dealing with incidents at the tax payers expense and all the while the owners of the properties sit on them, refusing to sell or avail of government incentives to put them back into use.
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In the majority of cases, there is no reason why they shouldn’t or couldn’t be put back to use.
These buildings become all the more offensive and are generating more anger as people struggle to find affordable accommodation.
Students who have secured a college place are unable to take it up because of the lack of rental properties, homelessness is at record levels as single people and families cannot secure affordable housing and home buyers and renters are faced with rising costs across the board.
Since 2017 Peter McVerry Trust has advocated for, and sought, the introduction of a vacant homes tax to help tackle the issue and supplement the many incentives that exist for the owners of these properties to use them or dispose of them.
Originally our proposal was strongly rejected by Government but over time there has been a growing recognition that the tax was needed as the incentive only model failed to deliver units at a scale they had hoped for.
For Peter McVerry Trust, too many properties are held by companies or individuals who could use them but choose not to. This is not without consequence.
HOUSING CRISIS
Restricting the availability of properties and holding homes as assets reduces the supply of housing and pushes up the price of the housing for everyone, be it renters or home buyers.
Now, five years after we first proposed it, Minister Paschal Donohoe and his Department have finally committed to introducing a vacant homes tax, whilst downplaying its reach and impact.
However, this tax is not about revenue raising, it’s about stimulating greater use of vacant properties.
If the tax is to be effective it cannot simply be restricted to habitable vacant homes, as is seemingly the plan. If this is the case it will create an easy out for the property owners.
TAX MUST BE TARGETED
The owner of a vacant home would have to simply remove the bathroom suite or kitchen and it is no longer considered a habitable property.
If we want the tax to work then it should be applied to all vacant and or derelict properties owned by companies, investors and property developers who have the means to reuse their properties.
If people do not have the finances to bring these properties back into use the vacant homes tax is likely to see them sell them, meaning more opportunities for owner occupiers to pick up these houses and avail of new grants to bring them back into use.
It will also allow approved housing bodies the chance to buy properties and return them to use to meet local social housing needs.
Ultimately, what the Government should be trying to do with the vacant homes tax is make sure it pushes people to act.
PUSH PEOPLE TO ACT
It needs to be levied at such a rate as to ensure people act quickly given the scale of our housing and wider accommodation shortages.
To that end our original proposal should be implemented which scales the tax levied depending on how many years the property has been vacant.
Meaning that with each passing year the financial impact grows and action becomes likely.
For Peter McVerry Trust, if we are to reduce homelessness we need to do two things.
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Firstly, reduce the number of people becoming homeless and secondly, increase the number of people we are finding a home for.
Reusing derelict and vacant buildings the length and breadth of this country can play a key role in helping us do that but only if the measures proposed are effective and clear in the outcomes they hope to achieve.