[Original source: CIOB]
With energy saving high on the priority lists of public and governments alike, a paper published by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) explores how deferring stamp duty on properties bought, made more energy efficient and sold on, could help get more homes up to scratch sooner.
The proposal aims to encourage investors to fix up older, less energy efficient homes for resale by allowing them to defer stamp duty, thereby creating a ‘green flipping’ business model. This could provide an additional incentive to retrofit and increase the overall number of residential properties becoming more energy efficient through improved loft and wall insulation, better windows and doors and new boilers for example – good news for bill paying residents and decarbonisation commitments.
To defer the stamp duty, investors would have to have their retrofitting measures carried out and verified by suitably qualified professionals and would be required to sell on the property once work is complete. They would not be able to live it in themselves or rent it out.
Read the full storyThis report, proposing the deferral of stamp duty on residential properties purchased for refurbishment, would go a long way to helping the speed and scale needed to decarbonise the domestic housing stock in Ireland, north and south.
John Barry
Professor of Green Political Economy at Queen’s University Belfast
