No strings attached for developers in Budget 2026
No strings attached for developers in Budget 2026 - The Labour Party
- Another bail out for developers in this Fine Gael budget for elites
- VAT reduction on apartments should be tied to affordability
- No additional measures for homeless services or preventions
- €1.2bn on Starter Home Schemes subsidy for developers
- No new targets for social and affordable homes
- Why is Derelict Property Tax delayed until 2028?
Labour’s housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan TD said Irish people deserve more than developer led housing policy.
Deputy Sheehan described what was announced today as a Galway tent budget.
Deputy Sheehan said:
“It’s abundantly clear that while Fianna Fáil had one eye on their failed presidency bid, Fine Gael have been firmly focused on ensuring their friends in high places get sorted with this year’s Budget.
“This Government is choosing to forgo €390 million annually to give developers a VAT cut on apartments, with no strings attached. When Stamp Duty relief and CT tax deductions for cost rental are also taken into account, that amounts to a developer tax package of €563million in a full year.
“With the VAT cut coming in to play from midnight tonight, developers will make an extra 4% on apartment sales, which is on top of the 15-20% margins made on apartments as it is. Just what is Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil playing at?
“A whopping €563 million tax cut for developers is truly incredible at a time when there are over 220,000 children living below the poverty line when housing costs are accounted for; at a time when house prices are astronomical and rents are out of this world.
“The very same budget provides no additional measures for homeless services or preventions – at a time when 5,145 children live in homelessness. There are no new measures to end this scandal. It’s effectively an admission that they’ve thrown in the towel on housing solutions. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s budget effectively admits that homelessness will only continue in the same direction – trending upwards month on month. It’s disgraceful.
“With €1.2bn devoted to ‘Starter’ Home Schemes in Budget 2026, it’s abundantly clear that this is far from the radical reset needed for housing. It’s more of the same tried and failed policy measures that are effectively subsidies to developers and private investors. The result of this will be higher rents and more unaffordable homes on the market. Budget 2026 has bowed down to investors and speculators, allowing them to ride roughshod over the greatest crisis of our generation.
“Budget 2026 could have given people on the hard edge of the crisis some hope for the future. Instead, it’s an open invitation to speculators to profit off of hard working people and those who are struggling.
“Just take the proposed Derelict Property tax which likely won’t come into effect until 2028 at the earliest, while the Revenue Commissioners could act now to collect the current 7% derelict sites levy that is already in place.
“According to the Minister’s announcement, the new Derelict Property Tax will replace the levy, and will be legislated for in the Finance Bill. Properties will be identified next year and a register published in 2027 and the tax will come into effect after that. If the track record of the Residential Zoned Land Tax and Vacant Property Tax is anything to go by, it will be years before we see real progress.
“No rate has been set, and it is not clear if the revenues will remain with local authorities.
“Why is the can being kicked down the road again? Revenue should be empowered now to collect the existing 7% derelict sites levy while an updated system is put in place.
“There are no new targets for social and affordable homes in this Budget which begs the question – where is the housing plan that was promised during the summer?
“I’ve long believed that Fianna Fáil had hoped to bury the new Housing Strategy for Ireland until the Presidential election was over. Now that that’s no longer an ongoing concern for them, they must immediately publish the plan and turn the ship around for the country.
“Today’s Budget is a clear return to the bad old days and has all the hallmarks of something cobbled together while attention was elsewhere. They have bottled the opportunity to have a vision for our housing system that puts affordability and protections for people front and centre. From the measures announced today, it’s clear that not only is there no sense of urgency on housing, but there is no desire to address the systemic injustices that exist in housing in Ireland today. “