Irish parties outline housing policies ahead of 2020 election

Ireland’s main parties have unveiled a raft of housing policies this week, as campaigning steps up ahead of the country’s General Election next month.  The key parties are the governing liberal conservatives Fine Gael, centre-right rival and leading opposition party Fianna Fáil, and left-wing Sinn Féin.  Fine Gael has promised to build 25,000 new homes in 2020, back more first-time buyers by expanding its Help to Buy programme and deliver 12,000 new social homes next year and every year thereafter. The party introduced the Help to Buy scheme in 2016, providing first-time buyers with a tax rebate of up to €20,000, or 5% of the value of a property, if they were buying a newly built home. It extended the scheme to the end of 2021 in October’s Budget.  Prime minister Leo Varadkar said this week that he wanted to enhance the scheme so buyers can get up to 10% of the value of the property back – a tax rebate of up to €30,000.  Opposition party Fianna Fáil has pledged to give first-time buyers a new special savings incentive allowance. Under the proposal, the party would give first-time buyers €1 for every €3 they save for a mortgage, capped at €10,000 per person. It has also pledged to build 50,000 affordable homes by 2025.  Sinn Féin has promised a widescale public housebuilding programme “over the lifetime of a government”, which would see 100,000 public homes built, comprising 60,000 social homes, 30,000 affordable homes and 10,000 affordable rental homes.  It has also pledged to abolish the local property tax, claiming the levy hits low- and middle-income earners harder. Its abolishment could cost the Exchequer around €440m. Additionally, it would undertake a full review of the tax rate paid on distributions by all major REITs in Ireland, arguing “their large-scale predatory buying” has resulted in a loss for the taxpayer.  In an opinion poll released this week, Fianna Fáil enjoys a small lead over Fine Gael. According to the poll, undertaken by the Irish Times and Ipsos MRBI, 25% of respondents said they would vote for Fianna Fáil, 23% for Fine Gael and 21% for Sinn Féin. The Irish General Election will be held 8 February. To send feedback, e-mail anna.ward@egi.co.uk or tweet @annaroxelana or @estatesgazette Photo: Richard Sowersby/Shutterstock