Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

“In page 7, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following: “Report on the establishment of a Land Price Register

8.The Minister shall, not later than 3 months after the passing of this Act, commission and publish a report on the establishment of a Land Price Register to be operated by Tailte Éireann which would—

(a) expand the register that records residential property sales prices,

(b) establish a new land and other non-residential property transaction database,

(c) set out in detail all other key considerations.”.”

Amendment No. 2 is on the issue of a land price register, which should be a key function of Tailte Éireann. It seeks to ensure that if this amendment was passed, no later than three months after passing the Bill, a report on the establishment of a land price register would be published. In the US, since 2000 the price of land has increased at a much faster rate than the consumer price index or even the price of housing itself. The collapse in the price of land after the great global recession more than decade ago was also much sharper than the collapse in the other prices. We can see from the data that is available in the US that the one the key drivers of house price inflation has been linked to sharp increases in the price of land.

My point in telling the Minister of State about the US is that we know of this data in the US. This information is freely available in the US because of the US land price index. There is no such equivalent register index or data available in Ireland. We do not have transparency around land prices or developers’ margins and we do not have the information we need to tackle the cost of delivering housing. We do not have the information we need to help end land hoarding and land speculation.

At the moment, according to the Government, there is 8,000 ha of zoned land available for housing that is sitting unused and on which more than 250,000 homes could be built. A land price register would help to provide the data that is required for an effective land hoarding tax. In whose interests is it that we do not have this information and that it has not been made transparent? I ask this especially in the context of the housing disaster we have the moment, where we have the highest ever house prices, the highest ever rents and the highest ever number of people in homeless emergency accommodation. Huge numbers of young people are emigrating and are stuck living in their parents’ homes well into their 30s and we do not have transparency around this. I would ask that the Minister of State would accept this amendment.

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