€50,000 tax refund will become a developer windfall
€50,000 tax refund will become a developer windfall - The Labour Party
- Help to Buy hike will pour petrol on house prices
Labour housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan TD has today called on the Housing Minister to abandon plans to increase the Help to Buy tax refund from €30,000 to €50,000. Deputy Sheehan said the reported proposal would push more public money and drive up house prices again in an already overheated housing market.
Deputy Sheehan said:
“First-time buyers desperately need help, but handing out tax refunds of up to €50,000 while housing supply remains so constrained is inflationary. It will increase house prices and transfer even more public money into developers’ pockets.
“The proposed increase would add another €20,000 to the maximum refund available. That may sound attractive to a buyer struggling to assemble a deposit, but it will simply be absorbed through higher asking prices.
“Research from the ESRI and Central Bank has shown that abolishing Help to Buy would bring down the price of qualifying new-build homes. This is not an efficient use of public money. Labour has proposed a more targeted Save to Buy Scheme for new homes, with income limits governing the tax refund available. That would directly support the people who genuinely need help to bridge the deposit gap, rather than writing an ever-larger blank cheque that the market can swallow.
“The Minister must publish the evidence behind this proposal, including its effect on house prices and the advice he received from the Department of Finance. He should drop this inflationary €50,000 plan and introduce targeted support alongside a serious programme to deliver genuinely affordable homes.
“The price of new build housing in this country is out of control and increasing the Help to Buy threshold to €50,000 will cause them to spiral further.”