Members of South Dublin County Council have voted to reduce the Local Property Tax (LPT) by 7.5 per cent for the next four years.
The annual charge on residential properties is used to fund services provided by local authorities.
However, given that councillors voted to reduce the annual charge by 15 per cent last year, it is expected most homeowners will face an increase when the tax falls due.
The decision to cut the rate for the next four years was approved by members in a vote by a margin of 25 votes to 14.
RM Block
Each local authority may reduce or increase the rate of the tax in its administrative area by 15 per cent.
The motion was proposed by Cllr Mick Duff (Independent), who said he had the support of other independent councillors as well as members of Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil.
Mr Duff said the decision to reduce the tax until October 2029 would ease the burden on homeowners and give council chief executive Colm Ward certainty in his budgets for the coming years.
The move comes in advance of changes to the LPT scheme proposed by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe which may add further increases to bill faced by homeowners.
The changes include a revaluation to take place on November 1st, with these valuations applying next year and continuing for five years.
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said “most homeowners in south Dublin face a 15 per cent increase in their property tax bill next year, while some will face even steeper increases.”
Mr Murphy particularly criticised the decision by South Dublin “to halve the discretionary reduction from 15 per cent in previous years to only 7.5 per cent next year.”
“The council had the opportunity to protect residents from much of the increase being pushed by the central Government, but they failed to do that, and voters won’t forget it,” he said.
While most house valuations are expected to increase, Mr Donohoe has played down the impact of the changes.
He said about 96 per cent of properties would remain in their existing band, with the majority of property owners – those with properties valued at €525,000 or lower on November 1st – paying between €5 and €25 extra a year.
Properties above that value, or properties which move up a band, will see a higher increase in their LPT charge.
Mr Duff said the review of the LPT “is going ahead anyway”, but what councillors had done was to bring certainty to the annual debate over the charge.
He acknowledged the initial aim was to eliminate the charge entirely over the coming years, but said “that is now going to be [a matter] for the next council”.
At Monday’s meeting members were also told the council exceeded its social housing target of 1,821 new homes between 2022 and last year.
In a progress report on the council’s housing delivery action plan for 2022 to 2026, council staff said the figure for social homes came in at 1,825.
Council staff said the number of new social homes due to come on stream by the end of next year was 3,700.
The homes are being delivered through a range of initiatives including the local authority building its own homes, partnerships with approved housing bodies, through Part V of the Planning and Development Act and leasing.
Councillors were told up to the end of last year the local authority had built 566 new homes and 15 were acquired as “turnkey” properties – meaning they were ready to move into. Approved housing bodies had built 123 and obtained 528 as “turnkey” properties.
Part V of the Planning and Development Act, which allows the council to buy properties from developers at cost, delivered 593 homes.
This article was updated on July 15th
