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HOUSING LED THE agenda during Leaders’ Questions for nine days over the last two weeks and the level of pressure on the government doesn’t appear to be dissipating.
Last week, the government scrambled to roll out measures to clip the wings of the investment funds buying up hundreds of properties and locking regular buyers out, we also heard that a vacant property tax could be on the cards.
The news comes some four years after the Peter McVerry Trust lobbied consistently for such a tax to be introduced.
In 2017, the charity even did a survey on the issue with Ireland Thinks where 62% of the public supported it back then.
The proposal for the tax was also included in Leo Varadkar’s leadership manifesto, but nothing came of it.
Frances Doherty from the Peter McVerry Trust said anything that can be done to bring vacant properties back into use – be they owned by investment funds or not – should be done.
Doherty said that whether it is investment funds, banks or any other body leaving properties vacant, “what they’re really doing is manipulating the supply”. Some politicians have argued that increasing supply will result in cheaper prices.
Vacant homes
There are an estimated 200,000 vacant homes in the country, with the Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath saying last week that the local authorities plan to work with owners to bring them back into use.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien also confirmed they want to target investment funds that have large swathes of apartments lying empty.
There has been particular anger at reports that high-end apartment blocks are lying idle, with the Business Post highlighting recently that in midst of a crisis 100 of the 190 apartments in the 22-storey Capital Dock near Grand Canal Dock in Dublin are vacant.
But it is not just investment funds that are leaving properties empty. Irish banks and vulture funds are understood to have hundreds of properties on their books lying vacant.
According to the figures supplied to The Journal, three of the country’s main banks have around 600 vacant properties on their books, though some are sale agreed.
Permanent TSB said the properties in its possession have reduced by about 50% year-on-year to 295 properties at the end of December 2020 – of which 59 are sale agreed.
AIB said the bank currently has possession of around 250 vacant residential properties. It is understood that 58 are sale agreed.
However that number is expected to reduce as the bank continues to work with the Housing Agency to offer stock for sale to meet the country’s housing challenge, the bank said in a statement.
“Over a period the bank has offered in excess of 1,600 properties to the Housing Agency for sale. The Housing Agency has progressed the purchase of a significant number of these properties and the bank will continue to work directly with the Housing Agency with the aim of meeting any challenges relating to Covid-19 and ultimately the country’s housing challenge,” said a spokesperson for AIB.
Bank of Ireland says it has 55 vacant units currently, which are all pre-market, on-market for sale or sale agreed.
“We don’t hold on to properties unless there are impediments to selling such as essential repairs required or legal/title issues still in progress,” the bank said.
These totals are just for three three pillar banks, and do not include the number of properties in the hands of so-called “non-bank unregulated loan owners”, also known as vulture funds, or retail credit firms.
Doherty said that while it may not seem like a huge number of properties, at the same time, given the context of the number of properties available to buy on sites like Daft.ie, the numbers are significant.
In 2018, after criticism from the likes of the Peter McVerry Trust, the government commissioned a report to be done into the feasibility of a vacant property tax.
Indecon consultants – the same group that found that there was no need for a community banking system in Ireland given the variety in the Irish banking market – conducted an examination of introducing a vacancy tax and the impact it might have in increasing the available housing stock on the market.
The report found that a vacant property tax would not be recommended at the time, however, it said a major programme of compulsory purchase orders of vacant properties should be urgently activated.
It found that if the government decided to introduce the vacancy tax, it should be levied on properties in rent pressure zones which have been vacant for a period of 12 months or more and it should be imposed in the form of a surcharge on the existing Local Property Tax. (The finance minister has pledged to reform the local property tax system this year, and bring new homes, which are currently exempt from the LPT, into the taxation system).
In theory, the report found that a vacant property tax “could re-activate significant segments of the existing housing stock” but it found that the reasons for vacancy are wide-ranging.
Policies
Over a decade after the financial crash, the policies from both the financial sector and the government for those that found themselves in mortgage difficulty, and either had to surrender their home or had it repossessed, are coming home to roost.
Paschal Donohoe has said investment funds have a role to play in the rental market, and that over 13,000 landlords have left the market.
Vacant properties lying on the books of banks and vulture funds, and the fact that one-off or accidental landlords have left the market, are not a coincidence.
During the last Fine Gael-led government the pressure was on to get a handle on the rising homelessness figures, while at the same time there appeared to be little sympathy for the buy-to-let landlords losing their properties to vulture funds.
The two issues were linked then, but more focus was put on the families that were losing their family home, rather than the trouble the buy-to-let market was getting into.
And the pressure has been a long time coming.
The Housing Market Monitor for the last quarter of 2020 found a significant decline in buy-to-let investors in the housing market, with these loans now accounting for less than 1% of mortgages, compared to 20% in 2006.
Without ordinary Joe Soap landlords with one or two properties to let, the market is ripe for big investors.
Again, the shape the housing and rental market is in should come as no surprise to those in government. As far back as 2014, it was reported that thousands in private rented homes faced homelessness because of the mortgage arrears crisis amongst buy-to-let landlords.
Threshold told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform that buy-to-let receiverships were increasingly threatening the family homes of tenants.
Since 2012, the charity said it had seen a spike in the number of receivers appointed to buy-to-let landlords.
In April 2014, the charity said there were 3,700 receiverships in place over residential properties, resulting in tenants – people who made their homes in the private rented sector – facing the prospect of having to leave their home due to the property being taken over by a bank or vulture fund.
“Some families are even facing the terrifying prospect of having to leave their homes as a result of this situation,” said Threshold.
Despite families being forced to leave their rented accommodation, many of these properties were left vacant.
In 2019, Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty told Varadkar that mortgage holders and tenants were being treated in this way as a direct consequence of government policy, which he said was to roll out the red carpet “to these leeches”.
Varadkar responded by saying that a review of the tax treatment of property investment funds would take place. Tax incentives are brought in at a time to stimulate particular activity but are then removed at a later period when they are no longer necessary, he said.
The issue of vacancy is “symptomatic of the dysfunction of in our system”, Doherty of the McVerry Trust said, adding that if there is going to be an improvement of the system, the issue of vacancy has to be addressed.
He said the situation cannot continue whereby there are some large multi-unit blocks in the city centre vacant for 20 or 30 years.
For two weeks, Leaders’ Questions has been dominated by housing. Pressure on the government culminated in the Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe hastily working on new measures such as ring-fencing new developments for owner occupiers, as well as a 10% stamp duty to hit funds who buy up more than 10 properties.
Both within and outside government, the prospect of a vacant property tax is being welcomed. Fine Gael’s Louth TD Fergus O’Dowd said such a move would generate much needed housing supply.
“We have clear evidence from the city of Vancouver that it will successfully bring vacant units back into use, as they saw a 25% decrease in vacant properties following the introduction of the tax,” he said.
Roísín Shortall of the Social Democrats said that in Paris they tripled property tax on vacant homes to address the problem of properties being left empty.
“What does your government do? Shrug and continue feeding what little housing supply we have to the vultures,” she said in the Dáil recently.
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It’s a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
@Celtic Spirit: That accent man…
@Celtic Spirit: what were they supposed to do when people didn’t have symptoms and therefore assume therefore it would to be fair to assume this is the case for the wider community
@james foley: From the article it says that all guidelines were followed. I would have my doubts on that. The company might have put procedures in place, but it doesn’t mean that they were adhered to or enforced.
I do wonder what the repercussions will be if it is found that the guidelines were not adhered to. Hypothetically speaking, if a worker dies from contracting covid due to negligence on the employers behalf, can the employer be charged with murder?
@Grainnewhale: if that is the case, then heads need to be roll.
@Grainnewhale: Do you have evidence of this?
@For Goodness Sake: Paul Murphy TD raised concerns about the possibility of large clusters of Covid-19 infections in meat processing plants THREE MONTHS AGO, he was sneered at and ignored by FFG Gov’t Ministers. Why did they ignore him as it’s now come to pass?
@Frank Cauldhame: he was sneered plenty by the keep the pubs shut lot on the journal too, plenty of the champagne socialist type deflection going on, as if how much money paul has or hasn’t has anything to do with risks associated with these plants.
@james foley: Iv worked in Meat factories, absolutly no guidelines followed, and such horrendous pay that workers are forced to live together in poor conditions. Terribly long hours which make people sick, most of these factories expect 60hrs a week.
@Grainnewhale: how can asymptomatic people be tested and show positive without the HSE knowing.
It is down to those doing the testing to report to HSE
Staff not given face coverings, having to buy them on their own accord from their minimum wage.
Staff being made work without any social distancing. If non compliant the fear of being sacked.
@Bio_Man: if this is so, I hope the employees come together and highlight this in the media. Not saying these guys did anything wrong but it might just put other wreckless companies off
@Paul Stewart: me either that’s just what has been reported from other meat factories.
@Bio_Man: also staff taking nurofen before going into work to hide temp because they don’t get paid sick leave. Flip side is that anyone reckoning they have no underlying conditions is risking getting the virus coz they get paid 350 yo sit at home, more than if they work.
@Dawn Harvey: The Farmers Journal is reporting that many are sub contractors registered in Poland, no prsi paid here so no E350.
@Cormac Laffan: which means it’s more than likely that they’re contracts are so bad, they’ll take nurofen to keep temp down and risk it rather than not get paid.
@Dawn Harvey: Yep, there’s a lot more to it if you can find the journal report, it popped up on my Google newsfeed.
@Bio_Man: the rumours about O’brien Foods is wrong, face coverings are worn, staff have to wear face masks as its a factory that deals with food for human consumption, they also wear gloves and overalls.
There’s also a thermal body scanner checking staff’s temperature when they arrive. That said staff get close to each other to talk over the noise of the machines, most workers have to wear ear defenders due to the noise of the ham slicers, and the temperature is kept cold, about 4 degrees which favours preservation avd transmission of the virus. They also use mobile phones to talk to each other in other parts of the factory floor.
The other factory isn’t refrigerated, and staff are able to socially distance better than at O’Brien’s.
There maybe some spresd in the factories, but it’s likely the disease is also spreading in the worker’s accommodation, in the direct provision centres and dormitories the live at, where hygiene and social distancing isn’t or cannot be enforced.
@Dawn Harvey: “also staff taking nurofen”
Up to 90% of cases are asymptomatic, this can be spread by people who feel fine.
@Dawn Harvey: So you don’t actually know anyone who does this. Why would anyone buy and take anything if they haven’t any symptoms?
@David Jordan: interesting, the conditions seem to favour transmission in meat processing plants not just in Ireland and I heard all you have said as well as the cooling fans keeping the air in circulation and all this seems to assist in large outbreaks in Ireland and elsewhere.
Kildare chilling, where all employees tested, tested positive is apparently still operating. The mind boggles
@Anne Marie Devlin: when words like apparently are used in a sentence it makes it sound like a rumour and not a fact .
@Anne Marie Devlin: Are you saying the people who tested positive are still working?
@Terry McSweeney: well it was open on Friday when I drove past, gate open, full car park, lights on so I imagine @Anne Marie Devlin is correct rather than just rumour. Obvioulsy they’re finally closing on Monday at the request of the Minister for Health.
@Anne Marie Devlin: that would be greed Anne.
Could the factory bosses be lying? Profit before people maybe?
@John Walsh: that’s what I’m thinking. And as I’ve said above. If the employer is discovered to have been deceitful and an employee dies, can the employer be charged with manslaughter?
We love our cheap food, and it doesn’t matter whose lives are lived in poverty to deliver it to our supermarkets.
@John Mulligan: You got it right in one. The big meat barons can sport their wealth, fly around in helicopters buy hotel chains, private hospitals, news companies, journalists, and of course politicians all at the expense of the producers and workers.
@John Mc Donagh: and the avg consumer is delighted to pay tiny prices fod food and clothing knowing the pay and conditions are awful.
Many consumers will claim they don’t know this, but they are merely ignoring the well documented reality.
The avg consumer is very much at fault for the situation with these workers.
@John Mulligan: Don’t forget our cheap products coming from semi-slave work in Asia
The meat baron’s won’t get touched folks, you can count on it. They will make sure manager’s take the fall or just call their mates in government and make sure this story gets buried or deflected with something else quickly…..don’t believe me, just remember the uproar when the crash hit and the amount of lives ruined by the likes of the Anglo circle etc, and how many of them did hard time or anytime for what they did???….not one bar a few show trials and that’s what will happen here. Oh maybe we will get a nice fancy tribunal to come out and “investigate” how this happened down the line, but ya we know how they go as well just ask the tax dodging media mogul about that
They were jobs for locals being advertised on the 4th on local GAA Twitter accounts probably looking for people to fill the gaps with people out sick, apparently they don’t mind infecting the community, just keep them production lines running and we will use good PR to mitigate any issues later ……
@Michael O Reilly: it’s regarded as a pretty good company to work for wishing the area. Plenty of local support for it.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: I wouldn’t say there’s much local support for the consequences of buying into this shabby business model. Still, a timely reminder to all of us that we are all involved in society , it’s values and practices, whether we want to acknowledge it or not.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: I’m from the area, and no it’s by no means regarded as a good place to work .
One simple question. Why didn’t O’Brien Foods/Brady Hams close down the plant immediately when the employees were tested instead of waiting for the results which they surely suspected would be positive . Grossly negligent.
@Colonel Grant: What’s worse is they were trying to recruit students for temporary roles as recently as August 4th to fill the vacancies left from those out sick or isolating with covid.
Totally irresponsible and dangerous behaviour from management with a complete lack of regard for health and safety of their staff and the general public.
This is the result of a handful of unscrupulous individuals left unchecked/abetted by government ministers, let run the meat industry in a fashion that would not be out of place in south Africa in the 80s. Fuk the farmers, fuk the employees and fuk anybody that takes issue with the way they run this industry.
@Seanboy: and thats the truth.
I guarantee you will not find many ex employees that will have one good word to say about the owners of that factory o Brien foods. They are penny pinchers so I’ll bet they are at fault and should be punished.
I buy my meat from my local butcher. He rears and kills his own meat, makes his own sausages, burgers and puddings. A bit more expensive but much better than that processed sh!t they sell in the supermarket chains.
@John Cassin: Aren’t you lucky that you can afford to, and that you don’t have to work there? Spare a thought for those who have no choice.
Happy as Larry friend of fianna fail enjoying his millions with his helicopter etc.broke the country before sending meat to Libya and if they didn’t pay government picked up the tab up fianna fail the people’s party
@Tony Mcgrath: Maybe so, but you will also find they friends of the Covney Dynasty too.
It makes no difference if they close the factory when a lot of the workers lived together in cramped conditions
And there was me thinking auld granny Brady making Ham ,and instead it’s a massive factory maying processed HOM
All the products in that factory should be binned
Where are the employees whilst they aren’t working now?
One thing is for sure, the almost daily journal articles on keeping the pubs closed have disappeared. Iam sure they working hard with the powers to be on producing 2 pages of scientific evidence to show the Govs reasons for Meat Plants to open and to remain open despite multiple incidents, some dating back to last May, similar to the produced scientific ‘evidence’ for basing decision to keep pubs closed.
Send answers in a brown envelope please.
3 out of the 4 factories are staying closed. Ó Brien foods still staying open at lower staff level!!
Their ham should be boycotted. Selfish decision bin everything and stay shut is what they should be doing a disgrace.
https://www.rte.ie/amp/1158126/?__twitter_impression=true
Not been funny but can people get infected by eating the contaminated meat??
@Bartron5000: Of course not tin foil hat wearer. Same risk category as opened Meat Plants , based on in-depth Gov scientific research and some journal fact-checking on the side. Maybe a slightly higher risk from packaging. The journal commentator scientists should be on now shortly to prove what the current Gov narrative is at the moment, you know the ones with all the scientific evidence, logic and reason to keep pubs closed.
Close these factories and get rid of cheap labour and start again simple
Should have been closed months ago… #beefbarons
So let me check if I am reading this correctly: in meat factories, one of the few workplaces where there has been mass testing, there is a dangerous outbreak of asymptomatic covid. Mass panic all round.
Rosderra in Edenderry reported 80 cases 3 months ago. Still not closed to this day. Carroll’s in Tullamore still open and operating. Yet I can’t go to the gym to exercise?
Shut down all affected plants until every one tests negative , and make the employers pay those out of work full Irish levels of minimum wage until reopening . And open up the counties in lock down its a complete farce that counties have to pay the price of bad business practices highlighted months ago
It’s an absolute disgrace that the Minister for Health hopes that these 4 plants don’t open on Monday.
Why doesn’t the government order them to close immediately.
PR stunt by o briens now to save face. A symptomatic as they were dosed up on paracetamol.
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