Sir, – Ireland could and probably should do more to ease problems of negative equity, but doing do by adjusting property taxes as Prof Thomas Piketty suggests (Front Page and Weekend Review, June 14th) is a thoroughly bad idea.
The property tax is not intended as a wealth tax, even though on average richer people live in more expensive houses and pay more tax than poorer people, and it therefore reduces the inequality of disposable income.
Its main purpose is to pay for the infrastructure and services that every house requires and which cannot or, in the case of waste disposal, should not be financed on a pay-as-you-go basis. It also increases the costs of leaving housing space underutilised.
Its absence during the Celtic Tiger years, combined with extremely high stamp duty, positively discouraged the elderly from downsizing, and failed to penalise those who left inherited houses unoccupied.
By reducing the supply of property to the housing market, it contributed to the rise in house prices, and to the problems of mortgage repayments and negative equity that burden so many households today. – Yours, etc,
TIMOTHY KING,
Shanganagh Terrace,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.