This article is from page 83 of the 2008-09-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 83 JPG
THE government should use the budget to intervene in the ailing housing market, according to a Clare property expert.
Philip O’Reilly, Managing Direc- tor of Philip O’Reilly Property Plus, says that while any upswing re- mains largely dependent on market conditions, certain areas, including the large amount of vacant hous- ing stock, must be addressed in the forthcoming Budget.
Mr O’Reilly says financial incen- tives should be provided to first time buyers to restore confidence in a housing market where values have fallen. “One area they should be looking at and doing something about is encouraging first time buy- ers to purchase unoccupied housing stock. This could bring a lot of new entrants into the market’, he said.
“If you take any house that costs €300,000, included in that is VAT of €39,000. Why not introduce a
scheme whereby €10,000 of that fig- ure would be made available to first time buyers. It could be limited to a certain time period, say for people who sign up for it before June 1”’.
Any interference on a micro level must also be balanced against mar- ket conditions and other macro-level events, said Mr O’Reilly.
“At one level, with the housing market under pressure, there are cer- tain things that need to take place at a microeconomic level, because if something isn’t done, it could have substantial implications for employ- ment and other areas”.
‘There is a limit to what kind of in- terference could take place that would have a positive impact on the hous- ing market. There are a lot of other forces at work, the credit crunch, the difficulties faced by the building trade. We shouldn’t be talking about €5,000 or lower figures, it has to be €10,000”, said Mr. O’Reilly.