HOUSING MEASURES SLAMMED RENT TAX CREDIT ‘NOT ENOUGH’
RENTERS will receive a €500 tax credit and a vacant home tax will come into force under measures announced in the Budget.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe allocated a total of €6.2 billion to the Department of Housing in yesterday’s announcement and insisted that housing remains a key priority for this Government.
The new rent tax credit for renters, valued at €500 a year, will apply for 2023 and subsequent years. It will also be backdated for 2022.
As many as 400,000 tenants will be eligible but renters who get other supports, such as Housing Assistance Payment, cannot avail of it.
Mr Donohoe said: “This measure, aimed at those who do not get any other housing supports, will apply for 2023 and subsequent tax years but I am providing that it may also be claimed in respect of rent paid in 2022.”
A Vacant Homes Tax will be introduced to increase the supply of homes for rent or purchase and will be charged at a rate equal to three times the property’s existing basic Local Property Tax rate.
The tax will apply to residential properties which are empty for more than 30 days in a year and will mostly affect holiday home owners.
Mr Donohoe said there will be a number of exemptions to ensure owners are not “unfairly charged where the property may be vacant for a genuine reason”.
Extended
The Help-to-Buy scheme, which helps first-time buyers purchase a newly-built house or apartment, has been extended until 2024.
Landlords will be able double the amount they claim per premises under the pre-letting expenses regime and claim up to €10,000.
The period for which a premises must be vacant has also been reduced from 12 to six months.
A total of €1.7bn will be spent to deliver the social housing new build target of 9,100 homes.
A further €215 million has been allocated to three key schemes – the Local Authority affordable purchase scheme, the Approved Housing Body Cost rental scheme and the national First Home Shared Equity scheme – to provide 5,000 affordable homes next year.
Some €87m is being allocated to the retrofitting of social housing in 2023 while €61m will be spent on tackling vacancy and promote regeneration in urban areas.
And €215m has been allocated to homelessness services – an increase of €21m on last year.
Mr McGrath said he was allocating a “record €6.2bn in Exchequer funding to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage of which the majority, €3.5bn, will be capital investment”.
Funding will be also made available to support 8,800 new HAP tenancies and 800 RAS tenancies.
The Government is also imposing a 10 per cent levy on concrete blocks and other concrete prod