According to a piece in yesterday’s Sunday Tribune, stamp duty is not the only thing that we have to worry about during this current period of doldrums.

The next biggest bogey on the horizon is, of course, the issue of interest rates. They have basically doubled over the last year and there will almost certainly be not one, but two more increases before the year is out.

We all have to grin and bear it now, while Mr. Trichet plays God with our lives from his ivory tower over in Frankfurt. True enough, the interest rates are having a dampening effect on property purchase and speculation. Many would see this as long overdue anyway, but in the real world, people go on with the business of living, and that business involves buying houses. Therefore, the current states of play is something a lot more than “normal” economic factors at play. It’s as if the house-buyers of the country are on strike until they get a fairer deal.

The good news is that a fairer deal is almost certainly on the way. All the main parties are promising a complete overhaul of the stamp duty system (whereby tax bands are only paid on the band amount rather than the whole lot) as well as the abolition of stamp duty for first-time buyers. Well, not quite all the main parties: the one exception is Fianna Fail. In their manifesto, they promise to abolish stamp duty for first-time buyers but that’s all. Whether they get into power or not, anyone interested in house-purchasing or working in the property or building industry should be hoping that their proposals don’t come to fruition. Their scenario would see a short-term boost to the property sector, followed by a lull and a further huge increase in the lower-priced property market.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 1:56 pm and is filed under News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.