Written answers

Tuesday, 7 March 2017

Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

Tax Code

Photo of Noel RockNoel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael)
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280. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if consideration will be given to introducing a vacant property tax as outlined by a charity (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11875/17]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Pillar 5 of the Government’s Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness is specifically focussed on Utilising Existing Housing Stock, with a key objective of ensuring that the existing vacant housing stock throughout the country and across all forms of tenure, in both the public and private sectors, is used to the optimum degree possible. In this regard, Action 5.1 of Rebuilding Ireland commits to developing a National Vacant Housing Re-Use Strategy by the first quarter of 2017, informed by Census 2016 data, to:

- inform the compilation of a register of vacant units across the country,

- identify the number, location and reasons for longer-term vacancies (i.e. over 6 months) in high demand areas, and

- set out a range of actions to bring vacant units back into reuse.

To this end, the Housing Agency which has lead responsibility for co-ordinating the development of the Strategy has established a working group, comprising senior representatives from my Department, local authorities and from the Housing Agency itself to inform the Strategy. The Working Group has met five times to date, and is considering a range of potential interventions with a view to facilitating and incentivising the greater re-utilisation of vacant properties. Ultimately, issues in relation to taxation are a matter for the Minister for Finance.

Furthermore, in relation to under-utilised and vacant lands, the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015, enacted in July 2015, introduced a new measure , the vacant site levy, which is aimed at incentivising the development of vacant, under-utilised sites in urban areas. Planning authorities are empowered to apply an annual vacant site levy, from 2019 onwards, of 3% of the market value of vacant sites, exceeding 0.05 hectares in area - with reduced or zero rates of levy applying in specific circumstances – which, in the planning authority’s opinion, were vacant or idle in the preceding year, in areas identified by the planning authority in its development plan or local area plan for residential or regeneration development. The 3% rate of vacant site levy is consistent with the rate applied to derelict sites under the Derelict Sites Act 1990and is considered reasonable, without being over-punitive, for the purposes of incentivising the activation of such sites for residential or regeneration purposes. In this regard, it is also worth noting that all levies due on an individual site remain a charge on the land concerned until all outstanding levies due are paid. Accordingly, there will be a cumulative effect associated with not activating a site for development purposes for each year a site remains vacant or idle.

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