Dublin estate agent Hooke & MacDonald has come up with a "Six Point Plan" to address the difficulties being experienced by first-time buyers in the current property market and the private rental market.
The plan claims that there is absolutely no reason why the needs of first-time buyers cannot be met throughout the country at this time.
The agency says there is sufficient land available in the city centre and the suburbs to build up to 25,000 homes per year in Dublin over the next decade - double what is presently being achieved.
Two-bedroom suburban houses and one and two-bedroom city centre apartments have the potential to satisfy the needs of a significant number of first-time buyers at affordable prices, the agency says.
The biggest problems first-time buyers encounter are choice and affordability. Hooke and MacDonald recommends that in key urban centres, throughout the country, emergency measures should be introduced giving priority to major planning applications for residential developments targeting the firsttime buyer sector.
The present 12.5 per cent VAT take on purchases should exclude first-time buyers, as is the case in the UK and Northern Ireland.
The third recommendation advocates a more widespread introduction of the shared ownership scheme, which would allow the private sector to co-finance the purchase of new homes so that first-time buyers could buy, say, 40, 50 or 60 per cent of a property now and the remainder at a later date.
In the case of the private rental market, Hooke & MacDonald advises that the Government should implement all of the recommendations of the Commission on Private Rented Accommodation and advises against cherrypicking.
In order to increase supply, the provision of rented accommodation should be treated for tax purposes in the same way as any other business where the 12.5 per cent rate applies, and interest relief on borrowings should also be allowed as is the case in all countries and in all other businesses, says the agency.
