Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said confirmation by Revenue that homeowners who build modular homes in their gardens will be liable to pay a separate Local Property Tax on that home will not put people off buying them.
Yesterday's confirmation by Revenue of the move followed a query put to them by the chief executive of the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers, Genevieve McGuirk.
Ms McGuirk yesterday explained that people who have a main residence and a separate dwelling were currently liable to pay a property tax on that second residence, but it was not clear up to now whether that applied to modular homes, which under new regulations are due to be exempt from planning permission.
The proposal to grant planning exemptions for modular homes of up to 45sq/m in back gardens was brought to the Cabinet last month as part of a Government bid to help ease the housing crisis and new regulations could be brought in, possibly before the Dáil summer recess.
Asked this morning whether he believed it would put people off buying them, Mr Martin said "not necessarily".
"A lot of this modular housing would be quite significant in themselves and they’ll be of a high quality," he said.
He added: "We don't interfere in Revenue's assessments of this, but I do think as soon as we're in a position to roll this out, it will make a contribution, on the housing issue.
The Taoiseach said the Government needed to be "relentless" on housing.
"We have to do everything we possibly can in every avenue, and rule nothing out, because the situation is very serious for young people. We need more construction," he said.
"We need more housing availability for workers. Different types of housing for different types of people," he added.
Ms McGuirk told the Today with David McCullagh radio programme, that there would not currently be many people who had such a home in their back garden and such homes would have had to have received planning permission in the past.
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As a separate residence that is permanently attached to the ground, such homes would be liable for the Local Property Tax.
The dwelling would also have to have sanitary facilities and basic cooking facilities, water and an electricity supply, be structurally sound and habitable, in order to be considered a home, she said.
The Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers said such a property would have to be valued in its own right and receive its own property ID and Eircode.
They say the LPT would have to be paid, even if the building was unoccupied.
An application has to be made for an Eircode, before the property can be registered with Revenue.
