When you sell your house you want the best price possible regardless of who you are. It doesnt make Irish people selfish, you can call it a flaw of the capitalist economy but we're not going to overhaul it in this election(unless it seems if Sinn Fein Win).

Working with Developers I have seen them say I'll sell them for €380k and then seeing that there is demand at this price they up it to €400k. And demand and supply will still be a factor with or without stamp duty. People still need houses. Demand is there, albeit decreasing. Developers abuse this position by upping prices to ridiculous levels just to meet demand and dont have to build a great standard of building. However now that prices are going down developers will have to adjust to get more money. Thats why they favour getting rid of stamp duty.

Lets say your house is €380K with €20K Stamp duty and because of prices going down its now €360k and €20K SD. Then stamp duty is removed so its now just €360. As a developer you would try sell this house now at €380K because thats how much you can see people paying for this house. Its greed but we all do it. And the benefit of Stamp Duty is lost to the buyer and to the Revenue, the winner is the Developer. And dont be naive enough to think this wont happen.


There is one solution in the form of regulating developers even more on their pricing strategies, which is very difficult to do.