Nenagh property talk told: 'SF figures don't add up. It's easy to shout from sidelines'

Sinn Féin’s budgetary figures “don’t add up”, a leading property expert told a presentation in Tipperary.

Marian Finnegan, managing director Sherry FitzGerald residential and advisory, told the presentation organised by Sherry FitrzGerald offices from Cashel, Thurles and Nenagh, that it was “not as easy to do what they say”.

Ms Finnegan, speaking in the Abbey Court Hotel in Nenagh, said that if the Government could solve the housing crisis overnight they would have done it by now.

“It is easy to shout from the sidelines,” she told the gathering of business people, including wealth managers, solicitors and auctioneers.

Responding to a question from the floor, Ms Finnegan said that the prospect of Sinn Féin in government and a “shift to the Left” was already having an impact as people were asking if they would be taxed more.

“People don’t want a wealth tax,” she said, arguing that a tax break was needed if more houses were to be built.

However, Ms Finnegan felt that the Civil Service - or the “permanent Government” as she put it - would curb many of the policies being put forward by Sinn Féin.

Earlier, Ms Finnegan said that, while 30,000 houses had been built in Ireland last year, there was a need to build at least 52,000 homes annually.

“We built 30,000, but we didn’t sell them,” she said. “Only about 10,000 new homes are coming to the market each year.”

Tipperary accounted for about 2.8% of sales, figures showed, and Ms Finnegan said that local authority purchase of housing for rent was in competition with the market and curtailing the amount of stock available.

“House building and completions in Tipperary is in the hundreds, not the thousands,” she said.

Ms Finnegan also stated that the net return in the private rental sector was about two per cent.