Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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206. To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the continuing problems faced by home-owners in fairly valuing their properties for the purposes of the local property tax whereby early registers have based their valuations on the property price register data available at the time but later registers have based their valuations on later updates on the property price register, resulting in persons with virtually identical properties making two different returns and paying different rates under the LPT; his views on whether it is fair that two neighbours with very similar homes pay different LPT amounts purely on the basis of the information that is available to them at the time of their registration; and the way he proposes to address such inequities. [22699/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that I have dealt comprehensively with previous questions, both written and in Topical Debates, from herself and from other public representatives on the question of property valuation for Local Property Tax (LPT) purposes. I disagree that continuing problems are being faced by people in fairly valuing their properties. Property owners have already filed in excess of 700,000 LPT Returns and have made their self-assessment of the valuation band in the course of filing these Returns. I am satisfied that the arrangements are working very well and property owners are engaging fully with their LPT obligations.

Based on the information provided by the Deputy in this question, it is not possible to provide a definitive reply to the issues raised. However, the following will be of relevance.

As previously advised, the Revenue Commissioners have provided on their website and in their “Guide to LPT” a variety of sources to help property owners establish the market value for their residential property. This includes the Residential Property Price Register as well as other property websites and information from local estate agents and newspapers. Revenue’s online interactive valuation guidance provides average indicative valuations for residential properties, based on the property type, age and location and uses data from the Residential Property Price Index (produced by the Central Statistics Office) to adjust for property price changes. Given that property prices have broadly stabilised in recent months, any recent changes in values are small, therefore the Revenue valuation guidance offers a very good starting point to identifying current market prices for property owners.

I am further advised that the Residential Property Price Register provides sales prices for residential properties sold since 2010 and is updated regularly, to include more recent sales of properties. The Property Price Register shows the date of sale and property owners can use this date to judge how useful a sale is in assisting them in valuing their residential property. Clearly, the more recent the sales details, the better for the property owners in making their self-assessments. In addition, for the purposes of LPT, properties under €1 million are organised into valuation bands, with an initial band of €0 to €100,000 and 18 bands from €100,001 to €1 million with a range of €50,000 in each band. The first returns were filed in late March and, in the two-month period from then until the end of May, any change in property values in the context of the value band system is extremely unlikely to cause concerns for those early filers who made an honest and reasonable assessment of their property valuation.