Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide in tabular form the estimated number of residential properties in the State in market value bands of €50,000, that is between €0 to €50,000, between €50,000 to €100,000 and so on; and if he will provide the source or basis for these estimates. [55394/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

No database exists as yet containing the valuations of the housing stock in the State. The estimated percentages of residential properties per valuation band based on (a) the property price register and (b) data used in the Report of the Inter-Departmental Group on the Design of a Local Property Tax, chaired by Dr Don Thornhill (the “Thornhill report”) are as follows:

[The figures above have been rounded, so the columns may not total 100%.]

In the absence of a property price register at the time of the Thornhill group, the group used unpublished Central Statistics Office (CSO) data based on mortgage transactions and the CSO’s property price index to estimate a distribution of property values.

In Autumn 2012, a national register of property values was published for the first time based on actual transactions in the years 2010 to 2012. The register is published by the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PRSA) based on Stamp Duty data from the Revenue Commissioners and is updated on an on-going basis. The distribution from the register results in a higher incidence of higher value properties. However, caution should be applied to this approach given the low number of transactions, the high percentage of non-mortgage transactions (i.e., cash transactions) and the possible bias in recent transactions towards transactions of higher quality housing stock which may not represent the generality of housing valuations in the State.