Irish houses prices are well beyond the means of most young people. One of the main reasons is the price of building land.
Speculators have driven up its cost by buying up huge land banks. They get planning permission and then sit on it as the price rises.
According to the Department of Housing, there are 81,000 planning permissions for residential housing that have not been activated.
The situation is so bad that back in 2022, the government introduced a tiny Residential Zoned Land Tax.
Speculators would have to pay a 3% tax on the market value of the land if it was unused. It was not due to be implemented until 2014.
Local councils drew up draft maps of unused land but this only drove the speculators wild. They could not stomach even a tiny tax on profits.
A total of 644 appeals were made against the tax. Groups such as the Carmelite nuns, Cairn Homes and O’Flynn builders all went to the courts or objected.
Now the Fianna Fáil Finance Minister, Jack Chambers, has bowed to pressure from the speculators. He wants to delay his own government’s tiny land hoarding tax for another year. In reality, it will go into never-neverland.
We have had enough of this nonsense. It is time to create a state construction company that will build social and affordable homes on public lands. And we can help finance that company with a massively increased tax on land hoarding – to be implemented immediately. No messing.