Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 171:

In page 142, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:“Report on introduction of measures to combat hoarding of land

60. The Minister shall, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the introduction of measures to combat the hoarding of land needed for development. The report will examine the desirability of a vacant property tax and a land value tax among other proposals.”.

My amendment relates to a vacant property tax.

This amendment calls for the preparation of a report on the introduction of measures to combat the hoarding of land needed for development and to examine the desirability of a vacant property tax and a land value tax, among other proposals.

The Government could move beyond incentives and bring in a tax on units that are unoccupied. A tax on vacant property based on the value would encourage owners to put it to good productive use. We can see that in the midst of a housing crisis in Vancouver, properties deemed empty are now subject to a tax of 1% of the value of the property of the 2018 assessed taxable value. Most homes are not subject to the tax as it does not apply to principal residences or homes for at least six months of the year. All home owners, however, are required to submit a declaration.

On the vacant residential land tax, almost 200 sites and properties, worth millions of euros, were identified as lying empty in Dublin city and county as per data from the authorities. These vacant sites are worth more than €400 million and have been identified in 114 locations across Dublin city and county, the vast majority of which, almost 90, are in the Dublin city area alone. This has been recorded by the vacant sites register.

From 1 January a residential land tax was applied to homes in inner city Melbourne that were vacant for more than six months in the preceding calendar year. A vacant residential land tax can be assessed by calendar year, from the start of January to the end of December. The six months do not need to be continuous.

There is a need for such a measure in the light of where we are at this time with a significant housing crisis and all of the factors that lead to that. Within the cost of construction, land value is one of the major issues which we need to deal with in a very robust way. The measures which are outlined in my amendment No. 171 are to combat the issue of land hoarding. There is an incentive for individuals to hoard land because the increase in the value of land makes it profitable for them to sit on land that should be released for development. There is a genuine need for some type of taxation proposals that would encourage if not force these land hoarders to release this property onto the market, whereby there would be a negative economic impact on them if they were to continue to carry on the practice of hoarding.