Dr. Kieran McQuinn:

Unfortunately, we do not have very good data on land prices. It is something we might look into with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. We have a research programme Department and it is interested in developing a land price index. We think that is essential in evaluating the success or otherwise of these types of policies. It is necessary to have the basic indicators or parameters in order to gauge how successful or otherwise it has been. I think we will need to wait a little longer to see how effective the residential zoned land tax will be. It is very hard to judge how effective it is because without a land value or a land series, it is hard to see whether the price is going up or down because of the residential zoned land tax.

There are some very tentative signs that, even at 3%, which is quite low, it may be effective. There have been some reports in the media recently of considerable activity among developers to try to have their land declassified in order that it will not be subject to the tax. This indicates that it is focusing the mind, let us say. Unfortunately, a lot of the evidence hoarding of land, etc., has tended to be anecdotal. It is simply because we do not have the indicators in place to measure it. In the context of the residential zoned land tax and a possible site value tax, it will be very important for us to have these indicators in place in order to judge how successful or otherwise the policies prove to be.