Property speculators should be taxed out of existence to keep prices down, warns Ahern

PROPERTY speculators trying to make a fast buck in the Irish housing market would be better off dealing in oil and cocoa beans from now on, the Minister of State for Housing said last night.

Noel Ahern warned that people who trade in houses and apartments or buy land to sell on to developers should be “taxed out of existence”.

Mr Ahern was speaking at the launch of an information handbook on affordable housing, at Government Buildings.