The Environment Minister Phil Hogan today announced the establishment of a high level and focused Inter-Departmental expert Group to consider the structures and modalities for an equitable valuation-based property tax that will replace the current €100 Household Charge.
Minister Hogan said:
Ireland is one of the last countries in Europe to introduce property-based charges to fund local services. The tax base in Ireland needs to be broadened but the focus must move away from taxing people’s work to lessen the impact on growth and to support employment.
The Minister stressed the Government’s firm commitment to introduce a valuation-based property tax to replace the Household Charge at the earliest opportunity. The group, which will be independently chaired by Dr. Don Thornhill and comprised of senior officials from relevant government departments, will report by the end of April.
The expert Group is to report to me on the design, scope and implementation of the property tax and I intend to bring proposals for an equitable valuation-based property tax to replace the Household Charge to Government as soon as possible thereafter.
The residential property tax is to:
· Meet the immediate financial requirements of the EU/IMF programme;
· Provide a stable funding base for the local authority sector in the medium and longer terms incorporating an appropriate element of local authority responsibility subject to any national parameters;
· Ensure the maximum degree of fairness between and across both urban and rural areas;
· Be collected centrally by the most cost efficient and effective means;
· Facilitate easy and/or phased payments by households;
· Be easily determined (e.g. on a self assessment basis), and having regard to the information currently available (or to be made available through registrations for the household charge) on residential property and/or house ownership details.
The Minister welcomed the fact that over 66,000 residential properties have registered for the Household Charge, equating to €6.6 million.
I would like to acknowledge and thank those people who have registered their properties and paid the Household Charge at this early stage. The large numbers of people paying the charge is a clear indication of compliance with the legislation and the acceptance that it is necessary to fund vital local services in our communities.
The €100 will go towards paying for essential local services: public parks; libraries; open spaces and leisure amenities; planning and development; fire and emergency services; maintenance and cleaning of streets and street lighting. These services are integral to the quality of life in local communities.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Household Charge to be replaced with more equitable Property Tax in 2013/2014 « MerrionStreet.ie Irish Government News Service
Surveyors see some ground for optimism - The Irish Times
LAURA SLATTERY
MORTGAGE FINANCE remained a stumbling block for home buyers, pressure on office rents continued and sales of retail premises were “dead in the water” in 2011, according to the annual property report by the Society of Chartered Surveyors.
However, the 319 chartered surveyors questioned for the report were optimistic about the Dublin residential property market, forecasting that prices would stabilise this year as a result of a dearth of new urban developments. The residential rental market had also “held its own”, with rents in certain parts of Dublin rising by between 5 and 7.5 per cent, the survey found.
Surveyors also reported healthy sales of agricultural land or development land for agricultural purposes in Leinster and Munster. Prime farm land in Tipperary and Kildare was sold for between €10,000 and €12,000 per acre last year, compared to a national average of €8,600 per acre.
The report highlights what it calls the “suburbanisation of retail”, whereby out-of-town shopping centres are performing better than town centres. Lettings in the retail sector increasingly tend to be short term – between two and three years – with tenants insisting on significantly lower rents, shorter lease terms, break clauses, rent-free periods and turnover-based rents.
Respondents believe that State assets agency Nama, which controls a number of hotels, still has “unrealistic asking prices” for those properties.
The power of Nama to “dictate and control” the property market was criticised in general, with some respondents believing it was preventing a normal market correction.
Minister announces group to examine new property tax | Irish Examiner
The Environment Minister Phil Hogan has announced he has set up an expert group to consider the how the new property tax will be implemented.The group will report back to Mr Hogan by the end of April this year.
It is expected the property tax will replace the €100 Household charge.
So far, 66,000 residential properties have registered to pay the new charge and approximately 1.6 million homeowners are liable for the fee.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Comers sell up German empire to fund buying spree at Nama - Independent.ie
Sunday January 22 2012
Carroll assets eyed as brothers build up war chest
THE Comer brothers, the Galway developers who made a fortune in Britain, are selling part of their German property portfolio worth hundreds of millions in an audacious plan to capture a big chunk of the Irish apartment market.
The brothers left Ireland in the mid-Eighties and were repeatedly linked with a bid for football club Aston Villa in 2005, a move which the brothers later denied.
Monaco-based Luke Comer confirmed that the Comer Group, which he co-owns with his younger brother Brian, were looking at buying up portfolios of "several hundred" apartments in Dublin from Nama.
"We are looking at Ireland now because we've been out a long time -- 27 years -- and we'd be very interested if the price was right."
Mr Comer declined to comment on individual deals but he has, according to market sources, looked at acquiring part of apartment kingpin Liam Carroll's portfolio of several thousand apartments in the Dublin area.
"What we're looking at would be in the hundreds, I'd say. It all depends on the type that is available," Mr Comer said.
The Comer Group, he said, had cashed out most of its British investments in 2006 and reinvested the proceeds in Germany. It currently owns 28 retail centres in Germany, four hotels and a massive office block in Berlin called Die Pyramide.
"How much we invest in Ireland all depends on how much we offload in Germany," Mr Comer said, "The sales process is going pretty well."
"The German property market is high at the most so that's a reason to sell," he said.
"There is still a lot of downside in Ireland and maybe we wouldn't be interested if we weren't from here originally," he added, "but it will all depend on how much success we have in Germany before we can really assess Ireland."
Mr Comer confirmed he had met with Nama, which he described as "doing its best in very difficult circumstances".
Property market insiders linked the Comer brothers with being interested in several thousand apartments if Nama is prepared to sell them at a bulk discount.
Meanwhile it has emerged that banks are seeking control of a boom-time joint venture between busted developer Liam Carroll and semi-state Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), which has imploded over the repayment of a €34m loan from National Irish Bank.
The move will be extremely embarrassing for the DAA which borrowed millions with Mr Carroll to develop the Horizon business park near the airport. But when prices crashed and Mr Carroll's empire collapsed in 2009, the scheme got into difficulty.
Loans fell due last July and weren't paid off with an extension set to expire in nine days' time. Property sources have told the Sunday Independent that frantic talks between the semi-State, lenders and Mr Carroll's former business led to a deal framework being agreed last week.
It is understood that the DAA will exit the deal and transfer its shareholding to Mr Carroll's former company, Dunloe. The move will come as a major reputational blow for the semi-state, echoing the disastrous property dealings that sank fellow quango, Dublin Docklands Development Authority.
"The company is a joint venture between DAA and Dunloe. Its borrowings are non-recourse to DAA. DAA understands that Turckton is currently in talks in relation to refinancing its borrowings, and these talks are expected to be concluded shortly. Turckton has been a profitable investment for DAA, and DAA expects this to continue to be the case," said the DAA.
Review of negative-equity mortgages postponed - Independent.ie
Monday January 23 2012
A REVIEW on the impact of so-called 'negative-equity mortgages' has been postponed until later this year because so few cases have come up, according to Finance Minister Michael Noonan.
A handful of banks began quietly allowing homeowners to shift their negative equity to a new property in the middle of last year, as first reported by the Irish Independent in September.
The progress of such lending is being carefully monitored by the Central Bank, which was due to assess the pros and cons of the loans by the end of 2011.
In response to a Dail question from Labour's Joanna Tuffy, Mr Noonan said only a "small number" of lenders had told the Central Bank they would consider offering such loans.
"The low level of activity made it difficult to conduct a meaningful review at the end of 2011," he added. "Therefore the proposed review will not take place until later this year."
October's Keane Report into the mortgage crisis alluded to the potential of negative-equity mortgages to help buyers trade down to cheaper properties.
This would lessen the monthly burden of their mortgages, though the 'loan to value' of the new loan would be worse.
The report also cautioned that banks "may want to use this as an opportunity to move people off tracker and reduced-rate mortgages".
"This would not be appropriate as in most cases it will defeat the objective of someone trading down to a more affordable mortgage," the report added.
Mr Noonan also used his response to once again rule out "a general scheme to assist mortgage holders in negative equity".
- Laura Noonan