The new property tax will hit people with more valuable and larger homes hardest, Transport Minister Leo Varadkar indicated yesterday.

THE Government will next month have an official register of house prices to help it determine property tax bills.

The register will detail the sale price of every house and apartment for the last two years and will be ready at the end of September.

This will be the first time such scientific data will be available and, as such, it will boost the Government’s strategy of bringing in a fullyfledged property tax next year.

It means homeowners will be able to check on the price of houses in their area and help them estimate what their property tax bill will be after details of the exact charges are announced in December’s Budget.

But it is also likely to be used by the Revenue Commissioners to make sure people pay the correct property tax.

Tax officials will be able to see if owners are trying to dupe them by assessing their home’s value at an artificially low rate, or getting a valuer to deliberately give their property a falsely low value.

While it will give everyone access to the sale price, address and date of sale for every residential property sold since January 2010, there will be no way of knowing whether the properties were three, four or five-bedroom.

Nor will it be possible to ascertain if properties sold were detached or semi-detached, the Irish Independent has learnt.

But those with knowledge of the area will know what sort of house is on a particular street and can calculate accordingly.

Every town and street where there has been a sale will be covered.

The new register is also likely to aid the recovery of the collapsed housing market as it will give real prices for properties in any given area.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that the Revenue Commissioners would have the option of taking the property tax straight from the pay packets of PAYE workers.

The Government has told the IMF and the European Union it is planning on introducing a "value-based" tax.

This means that if someone in Navan, for example, claims to have a house valued at €100,000, when most houses in the town are now selling at a higher price, the Revenue will have a basis for challenging the valuation for property tax purposes.

Clarity

Head of the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) Tom Lynch said his agency, which will be responsible for the register, expects to be able to provide the real selling prices of houses within 30 days of the sale going through.

He said the full address of the property would be on the PSRA's website within days of the sale. The register will even have sales figures for September when it is launched at the end of that month.

Property economist with the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) David Duffy said the new register would provide clarity for the beleaguered market.

He said: "The new register will provide an additional piece of information and will bring some clarity to the actual sales prices achieved."

He added that ESRI research has shown that there was likely to be pent-up demand for property purchases among the under-35s. A majority of the more than 160,000 new households set up between 2006 and 2011 are in rented accommodation.

But a lack of lending, uncertainty about future house prices and pressure on incomes was making people step back from buying, he said.

The Government has tried to force potential buyers to commit to purchase by telling them it will withdraw mortgage tax relief -- that could be worth up to €5,000 for a couple -- by the end of this year.

The new register will be the most up-to-date information on house-price changes. The monthly index compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has been questioned as it does not take account of cash sales, which make up a third of transactions, according to some experts.

The CSO index is based on mortgage drawdowns, which means that some of the sale price information can be up to six months out of date.

And the CSO index only breaks down prices for the greater Dublin area, with a further breakdown for houses and apartments. This means it is impossible to get an accurate picture of prices in pockets of the State, such as the Midlands or Cork.

Financial adviser Karl Deeter said the new register would end the practice of "estate agent spoofery" about values.

Up to now, strict data protection rules have meant that it has been impossible to get the exact sales prices.

Irish Independent