Housing

Tax breaks for developers being considered to activate 70,000 idle planning permissions

Taoiseach says government also looking at giving builders guaranteed price to encourage construction

Leo Varadkar said that he expected last year’s housing construction target to be exceeded this year. Picture: RollingNews.ie

Tax breaks for developers will be considered as part of plans to activate 70,000 idle planning permissions for homes, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Speaking after a special housing summit in the Department of the Taoiseach with construction industry and voluntary housing bodies, Varadkar said that he wanted to find ways of de-risking the 70,000 unactivated planning permissions for homes, mainly apartments, so that they could be constructed “if not this year, certainly next year.”