Urban renewalNew "Living City" tax incentives are to be provided for the refurbishment of Georgian houses.
The incentives, aimed at encouraging people to live and do business in city centres, are to be piloted in two of the country’s most deprived areas – Limerick and Waterford.
Published yesterday as part of the 2013 Finance Bill, subject to EU approval, the scheme is designed to address urban regeneration. It will provide “modest” tax incentives for work to refurbish residential and retail buildings to bring them up to a habitable standard and will be targeted at owner-occupiers rather than property developers.
Pilot project
The Department of Finance says the residential element of the pilot project is about generating interest in Georgian buildings “with a view to attracting greater residential occupancy and restoring these areas to some of their former glory”.
“Attracting families back to these areas will provide an impetus for the areas to be reborn,” the department says.
The incentives are targeted at specific areas where Georgian houses are located, and residents will be able to claim tax relief for refurbishment at a rate of 10 per cent per year for 10 years against their income, but only for the years the house is their principal private residence. If the property is sold within the 10-year period, entitlement to the relief stops and the new owner will not be able to claim it. Acknowledging that residents need shops nearby, incentives to develop and upgrade retail premises in specific areas will also be offered.
Social deprivation
With unemployment rates of 28.1 per cent and 25.6pc, Limerick city and Waterford city are two of the country’s unemployment black spots. A measurement scale for social deprivation shows they are also the most deprived of the five cities surveyed, worse than Dublin, Cork and Galway.
“It has been decided that the pilot phase of the initiative will be targeted at two specific urban areas identified as being most in need of urgent action,” the department said.
It points out that the recession has had “a particularly hard impact on the southeast” with high-profile business closures as well as the loss of significant numbers of construction jobs, while in Limerick there has been a regeneration project taking place in recent years; “this will achieve little if the city centre ceases to be vibrant and self-sustaining”.
