Renter's Tax Credit extension 'welcome respite', say tenants
By Bairbre Holmes, PA
For Chris Bond the extension of the renters’ tax credit until the end of 2028 is a “welcome respite”, but not a measure that will tackle the key issues of the cost of rent or the availability of houses.
He said: “We’re more than a decade into the housing crisis and there is no sign of it abating”.
The 40-year-old has been renting for over 10 years and would like to “eventually” get on the housing ladder.
He is cautiously optimistic about the announcement of €1.2 billion for a programme to deliver “thousands of starter homes”.
He said: “Any effort to increase the supply of housing is to be welcomed, however it should be judged on the number of additional homes delivered, and how it affects our housing supply”.
Having watched the Minister for Public Expenditure’s speech he pointed out Jack Chambers TD seemed to be “putting a lot of emphasis on it being one of largest housing packages of all time” but he thinks the results “will be judged on people’s ability to buy a home, not on statistics”.
A new father to a six-week-old baby, Mr Bond and his wife moved to a three-bed house in Kells, Meath for more space for their family.
Mr Bond works in finance in Dublin but described rental properties closer to the city as “prohibitively expensive”.
Some of the measures announced by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe on Tuesday include deductions to corporation tax on some of the costs of building apartment developments and a VAT deduction on the sale of apartments.
These will not directly help Mr Bond as he and his wife want to buy a family home, but he welcomes any measures that increase housing supply, so long as the benefits from the incentives are not “pocketed by developers”.
Budget 2026 includes €2.9 billion for new social homes.
Mr Bond said, even though he is not eligible for social housing himself, he thinks more social homes are vital to solving the housing crisis saying they are needed to “take pressure off the private rental market”.
