The Government's next Budget may contain measures designed to prevent property speculators from buying up new homes for profit, a junior minister said today.
Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal Noel Ahern said he would lobby Minster for Finance Brian Cowen to put in place such provisions as he revealed record numbers of houses are expected to be built this year.
Noel Ahern, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal
Some 51,752 houses and apartments have been completed throughout the state since January. This figure is a rise of 24 per cent on the same seven month period in 2005.
Homes built in Dublin since the start of the year totalled 10,869, with that figure rising to 16,982 for the Greater Dublin Area.
And although the number of completions around the country is expected to reach a record 90,000 by the end of the year, house prices continue to rise and first-time buyers are still struggling to get a foot on the property ladder.
Mr Ahern said a large amount of the blame for the continuing housing crisis had to be shouldered by property speculators.
"The person that I wish I could get rid of is the individual, company or whatever who is just buying off plans and off-loading it in 18 months time," he said. "They're not adding anything to the market. They're just screwing it up and hiking up the price on the person who needs somewhere to live."
The said he wanted provisions put in place for December's budget that would frustrate the speculators. "I'll certainly be speaking to my colleague, the Minster for Finance, in that regard," he said.
Labour's environment spokesman Eamonn Gilmore claimed today people can't afford to buy homes close to where they work or grew up because of the Government's failure to properly deal with the issue.
He said regulations requiring developers to set aside a fifth of all new housing as social or affordable were "littered with loopholes" and being exploited by builders.