Government is greatest beneficiary of property boom, survey finds

FINDING somebody to take responsibility for adding rocket fuel to house prices is even more difficult than locating a reasonably priced home.

The Irish Home Builders Association (IHBA) did a revealing exercise in which they broke down the price of the average new house into its various components and discovered the greatest single beneficiary of the property boom was the exchequer.

It is estimated the total revenue to the exchequer from new homes last year was €5.7 billion which accounted for 17% of the entire tax take from all sources for the year. VAT alone, applied at a rate of 13.5%, accounted for €1.3 billion.