Tax breaks mooted for older downsizers

Plan to free up homes with incentives for elderly

THE Government could offer financial incentives to older people in both private and social housing in a bid to encourage them to downsize their homes – and hasn’t ruled out tax incentives.

Government ministers yesterday launched a policy document, Housing Options for our Ageing Population, which it hopes will help free up larger homes occupied by elderly people or couples and make them available to house larger young families.

One of the most significant aspects of the plan is the introduction of financial incentives to encourage elderly people to move to more ‘energy-efficient and appropriate housing units’.

While the document does not promise, or directly refer to, tax breaks being introduced, the move was not ruled out by Junior Minister for Housing Damien Aims: Damien English English when asked by the Irish Daily Mail yesterday.

A Department of Housing spokesman later said a decision on tax breaks would ultimately be for the Finance Minister, Paschal Donohoe, to make.

He said the department is currently undertaking research that would look at ‘factors which might inhibit or encourage such households to seek properties better suited to their circumstances: typically, right-sizing’.

The spokesman added: ‘In this context, tax measures may or may not be appropriate and they will be examined.’

Discussing the incentives at yesterday’s launch, Junior Minister for Older People Jim Daly said: ‘There are some impediments to downsizing if people’s choice is to do so, and some of them are taxation linked, so that would be… the Department of Finance and Public Expenditure, and obviously would form part of a budgetary process if there were to be changes to it.’

Other key points in the plan include promoting the use of technology which would help older people to remain living on their own, ensuring that sustainable housing is built in areas where people can grow old, and funding new housing options for elderly people, such as house sharing and house selling.

The Government is also aiming to introduce measures that would ensure that over a fiveyear period, 30% of all new dwellings are built to accommodate the ageing population. The plan also outlines an increase in funding of the Housing Adaptation Grant Scheme, and a review of the scheme’s guidelines.

It will also look into the expansion of community-based supports such as daycare and meals-on-wheels, in order to allow older people to remain independent for longer.

An implementation body is to be set up in the coming weeks to monitor the programme, and its final report will be issued in around 18 months.

Alone, an organisation which supports older people, welcomed the statement, adding that it hopes the plan will bring about a policy which will prevent a housing crisis for the elderly in the future.

lisa.o’donnell@dailymail.ie

Measures to help ageing population