Ireland to look at cutting commercial stamp duty

Michael Noonan said the idea of cutting the rate was raised during an economic forum in Dublin as a way of reviving

Ireland's commercial property sector, which is stuck in the doldrums, partly due to a lower 1 percent rate of stamp duty on commercial property sales in the neighbouring UK market.

"The suggestion is that an American investor coming in to buy in Dublin his first 6 percent of profit goes to pay stamp duty and if we were thinking of changing that now is a good time because the take-up in the stamp duty is so low anyway," Noonan told reporters.

"It's always at the bottom of the market that you can change things. I am not saying that we will do that but it is one of the things I am going to analyse."

Activity in the Irish commercial property market has been halted due to uncertainty over government plans to retrospectively ban upward-only rent reviews on commercial leases created prior to February 28, 2010.

Ireland's government needs to get the commercial property sector moving again in order to ensure that the state-run National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), which has a huge exposure to the sector, does not face further write-downs on its portfolio.

(Reporting by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by Alison Birrane)