The Government has introduced 46 tax measures since 2013 to stimulate house building here. Have they worked and do they represent good value for money for taxpayers?
To help answer that question Ciaran Hancock is joined by Marian Finnegan, chief executive of Sherry Fitzgerald, Ireland’s largest estate agent, and John McCartney, a property economics lecturer in TU Dublin, who spent 20 years working in the commercial property sector.
Together they debate a range of questions that are key to Ireland’s housing and property sector:
- How many new homes do we need per year to serve the needs of a growing population?
- Are schemes like Help to Buy or First Home good value for money - or do they only serve to drive prices ever higher?
- Is it possible to design new schemes to bolster homebuilding in areas outside Dublin, where needs remain unmet?
- What is the true level of vacancy around the country and what does it tell us about housing need?
- How healthy is the commercial property sector?
