IPOA strongly criticises Budget 2020 for not addressing any of the serious issues which the Association has repeatedly brought to the Government’s notice.

This Budget does nothing to encourage investment or retain the Private Residential Landlords in the sector.

Main Points Of Budget 2020

Property Related:

• €1.1bn will support the building of 11,000 social houses in 2020, and a further 12,000 will be built in 2021.
• The help-to-buy scheme will be extended until 2021.
• Funding of €20 million for homeless services – a 13% increase, bringing total funding to €166 million.
• Funding of €80 million for HAP.
• Funding of €2 million to the Residential Tenancies Board to ensure rent-pressure zone measures are properly enforced.
• The rate of stamp duty applicable to non-residential property transactions will increase by 1.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent.
• Inheritance tax threshold will increase from €320,000 to €335,000.
• A number of amendments are being made to the REIT framework to ensure that the appropriate level
  of tax is being collected.

Other:

• Carbon tax to rise by €6, from €20 per tonne to €26, with polluted-linked charges for new petrol and diesel cars.
• The threshold for medical card income for people over the age of 70 will increase by €50 for one person or €150 for a couple.
• Prescription charges for over-70s cut by 50c, to €1.
• Free dental care for under sixes and free GP care for under eights.
• Cap on a family’s monthly drugs payment scheme reduced by €10, to €114.
• €1.2bn war chest to cope with a no-deal Brexit.
• The price of a packet of 20 cigarettes is to go up by 50c from midnight.

IPOA Chairman, Stephen Faughnan, said that this Budget “represented yet another series of missed opportunities to encourage private landlords who want to play their part”. He said it was “beyond time” for the Minister and the Oireachtas to “recognise that letting property is a business and it should be Taxed as a business”. Mr Faughnan noted that the State lost 20% of its landlords between 2012 and 2018. “Private landlords are part of the solution to the housing crisis,” he said, “Allowing all legitimate expenses to be offset in the year they occur would go a long way towards encouraging landlords to remain in the sector and new entrants to invest”