Property owners’ lobby group told politicians Reits should be subject to a flat 25% tax to level the playing field in the rental sector

All signs are that the Reits and other investors are washing their hands of our inhospitable property market. If they go, who will back the huge building boost needed to offset our housing crisis?

A total of €12.25 million in dividend withholding tax was returned to investors via successful Reit and Iref refund applications

Inclusion of property funds as part of evaluation of Immigrant Investor Programme aimed at wealthy non-EU citizens is under review

More than €225m of government funding earmarked for housing supply was instead used by funds to buy up houses and apartments in Maynooth, Co Kildare

The cynical use of the Irish housing market to bolster the profits of global corporate empires is what has us in this bind. But we can get out of it if the state plays the same game, with a different aim