Yes, and here's why. The government is considering introducing measures to boost flagging consumer demand for housing via incentive programs designed to get people back into the housing market. These measures will directly benefit retailers rather than buyers, because they are aimed at changing prices for things, rather than individual consumer demand for those things, which may result in perverse inflationary effects in some sectors. The reasoning behind this is simple: when people see prices falling, it creates the natural expectation prices will continue to fall. In waiting for a better deal, they kill the market.
If we accept the average house on the market at the moment is overvalued by 20% or more [1, 2 ], then one neat way to begin moving some of these houses, and in so doing restart the flagging housing market, would be for the government to allow a tax rebate up to a maximum of 30,000 euros to first time buyers for the next two years. This income tax rebate would be paid for from government borrowing, which the ESRI has argued should exceed the EU's limit of 3% of Gross Domestic Product this year. Freezing stamp duty is simply not a strong enough signal to buyers. The focused tax rebate is the superior policy option, as it would subsidise the costs of entering the housing market by those most effected by its collapse, soak up some of the housing in the market, and correct the free fall in the rental market at a stroke.
Those with new houses and those who have sold them would begin spending again, economic output would increase, and consumer confidence would be restored rapidly by such a bold move by the government. Unemployment would fall, but not to 2007 levels, because the building boom is well and truly over, and the dip the economy finds itself in would be mitigated somewhat. A gentler market correction is entirely possible with targeted tax policies to change particular consumers' spending patterns.
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