The council’s figures are based on approximately 15,500 new homes being sold in the city from mid-2013 to 2020, using an average 2013 valuation of €250,000 per home.
While at the standard LPT rate homeowners would owe the council an average of €405 each, the council applies a 15 per cent discount, resulting in an average annual charge of €344.25. Cumulatively that would amount to €11,205,338 this year and €16,558,425 by next year being lost to the council.Mr McCartan said it was fundamentally unfair that many hard-pressed homeowners were paying a tax that some of their neighbours were not.
“This exemption was meant to be a relatively short-term measure, but we are at the point now that most people have been paying a tax for six years that others have escaped. There was nothing to indicate that buyers of new homes were any worse-off than existing homeowners he said.had prices ranging from €825,000 to €6.5 million. It seems fundamentally unfair that these buyers would’t have to pay property tax, while the owners of older properties on Lansdowne Road have substantial bills.”
Mr McCartan said some system should be introduced so that owners of new properties pay an average, or even a minimum charge, based on 2013 values.Previously, in a report on the council’s 2018 budget, Mr Keegan said the exemption “requires prompt attention to remove the inequity among householders and address the loss of funds”.