€1.2bn sourced to fix up homes

It’s the big spring clean — figures show that Irish homeowners have availed of €1.2bn through the Home Renovation Incentive to fund home improvement projects over the last three years.

The HRI was launched in 2013 and provides homeowners with an income tax credit at 13.5% of qualifying expenditure on home improvement works carried out on a main home or rental property by qualifying contractors.

Latest figures show that homeowners around the country have carried out nearly 77,000 home improvement projects over the last three years, with an average spend of €16,000 per project.

The HRI was extended for use on rental properties in late 2014, further boosting the number of improvements undertaken by property owners.

Analysis of the data also shows that larger cities such as Dublin, Cork, and Galway have seen the most repair, maintenance and improvement activity during 2016, followed by properties in the commuter belt counties such as Kildare, Meath and Wexford.

The HRI has been extended until the end of next year and Construction Industry Federation (CIF) director general, Tom Parlon, said it had been “very successful on several fronts”.

“It supported an incredible €4bn spend into the Irish economy in 2016,” he said.

“This money is recycled into the local community by the 9,000 plus domestic contractors involved in delivering renovation construction across Ireland.

“The Home Renovation Incentive costs about €85m to the exchequer, but supports over €10bn spend in the economy since 2014. Homeowners might otherwise not have spent this money or it may have been spent in the grey market at a great loss to the Exchequer.

“It’s likely that the incentive kept many thousands of construction workers, tradespeople and companies afloat during the recession.”

The impact of the HRI in an area is illustrated by the €134.5m utilised through the scheme in the Cork region since 2013, facilitating homeowners in carrying out 9,261 projects, with an average spend of €14,523 per project.

CIF regional director, Conor O’Connell, said a similar model could be used to incentivise companies with large building stock to renovate and improve energy efficiency, with the possibility of offsetting the cost through the taxation system over a number of years.

“This would be a huge step towards achieving our climate change targets of a reduction of 30% in greenhouse gases,” he said. “This would also help us avoid huge fines from the EU.”