Housing crisis 'spiralling out of control', says Mayo TD
Mayo Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh is urging those locked out of home ownership by investment funds to come forward and share their story.
She wants to hear from constituents ahead of a Sinn Féin bill that would, if passed, instruct government to end the tax advantages and exemptions they granted to institutional investors, which are making home ownership increasingly unaffordable to ordinary workers and families.
The Erris-based representative said: "The housing crisis continues to spiral out of control. House prices have increased by over 88% since 2013.
"High rents and residential property prices are putting home ownership out of reach for an ever-increasing number of workers and families. In many parts of the state, we have a generation locked out of owning their own home.
"Institutional investors holding rental properties avail of significant tax advantages and exemptions granted to them by the Fine Gael-led government in 2013. Now ordinary workers and families across the state are paying the price.
"Successive governments have been living in denial. For years, in repeated budget submissions and amendments to Finance Bills, Sinn Féin have called for the tax breaks and exemptions gifted to these investment funds to end.
"They have turned a blind eye. The result is that cuckoo funds spent a record €696 million on houses and apartments in this state over the course of the first three months of this year - driving housing prices up and up in the process.
“Governments have refused to listen to the repeated warnings of Sinn Féin, so now they need to hear how their inaction has affected you.
"These funds pay no corporation tax on income from their property rental businesses and no capital gains tax accruing on the disposal of assets of their property rental businesses.
"In the Dáil tomorrow, Sinn Féin will call on government to introduce legislation to end the tax advantages and exemptions they granted to institutional investors, including REITs and IREFs, in the residential property market.
“In doing so, we want to use our platform in the Dáil to give you a voice, so I urge anyone who has experienced being denied the opportunity to own your own home because of an investment fund muscling in ahead of you, to get in touch.”