Government urged to encourage older couples living alone to trade down

The Government has been called upon to introduce tax measures to encourage older couples whose offspring have left home, to trade down as a way of making more family-sized homes available.

“In the absence of any meaningful new build activity, in order to help moderate the current upswing in Dublin prices, policymakers should consider introducing tax measures to encourage “empty nesters” to trade down, thus alleviating the current shortage of family homes in the city,” Philip O’Sullivan, chief economist with Investec Ireland said.

Speaking at yesterday’s launch of a new housing market report by the Irish Banking Federation, Mr O’Sullivan said the number of house completions for this year is likely to roughly equal the 8,488 builds from 2012 — suggesting it is too early to state a full recovery is under way in the market.