Councillor welcomes confirmation disused city site will be subject to new tax

A long-term unused site in Cork City is to be subject to the new residential zoned land tax, which was introduced to increase housing supply.

Green Party councillor Oliver Moran has received confirmation that no 1 Brian Boru St has been included in the city’s final map of the tax.

The tax increases housing supply by activating zoned, serviced residential development lands, including mixed-use lands, for housing.

It also incentivises landowners to use existing planning permission for housing.

The annual tax, which will come into effect next year, will apply at a rate of 3% of the land’s market value. It will replace the vacant site levy.

The site has been empty for at least 14 years.

In 2016, Cork City Council granted planning permission for the construction of a retail unit and three apartments in a four-storey building with a roof garden on the site.

In 2021, an extension to the planning permission was requested, and granted until December 2026.

Speaking to The Echo, Mr Moran said the site is “one example of countless sites across the city that have permission for housing, but where that permission is not being moved on”.

“The idea with this tax is to put a cost on sitting on residential land while people are crying out for houses to be built.

“The speculative nature of land means it’s profitable to just sit on sites and do nothing with them,” he added.

Mr Moran said that the tax is different to the levy on derelict and vacant sites in that the obligation is on the landowner to pay the revenue, not on the local authority to collect.

“While officials have put a lot of effort into collecting those levies, it’s an administrative burden that itself has a cost for Cork City Council,” he said.

“Now that burden will be put on the land hoarders and speculators instead.”