Rory Hearne Lecturer in Social Policy TO DESCRIBE THE public response to the article I wrote last Thursday as phenomenal is an understatement.
It connected to what Generation Rent knew inside, could feel, were experiencing, but had not seen described and the policy explained before.The government is scrambling around trying to cobble together some sort of a response that will make it look like it is doing something on the investor funds. It is looking for a response that will quieten down the tidal wave of public outrage that has engulfed it since last week.
Just as the water charges were the straw that broke the camel’s back of people’s tolerance of austerity, the investor fund buy-up of homes is the straw that is breaking the Irish people’s tolerance of the housing crisis. The Tánaiste’s claims that rents and homelessness would be higher if it wasn’t for these investor funds is actually a disturbing level of dishonesty. The Tánaiste knows very well that rents are higher and homelessness worsened because his Government allowed rents to rise and did not implement measures to stop homelessness, such as restricting evictions, so that property would remain attractive for investors.
The financing and supply arguments are attempts to deflect away from the reality that in fact, finance is available for building affordable housing on a major scale. And it is not that people cannot access mortgages, it is that they can’t get mortgages or deposits for unaffordable house prices at €350,000 or €450,000.The State can borrow at practically zero cost to build on scale. The European Investment Bank has billions to lend for affordable house building.
These homes would then be for sale at c. €250,000 per unit. It is done whereby local authorities and ‘not-for-profit’ housing providers like AHBs and Ó Cualann build the units themselves on state land, using SME and some larger contractors.
RoryHearne I will vote for any party that resists the 'commodification' of our country: housing, also water, transport, other stuff that should be public services: all need to be guarded and defended against 'corporates' who care not one fuck whether we all live or die. HousingCrisis
RoryHearne Why do the journal keep running with tales from social justice warriors. Why not an economists view - someone qualified to talk about housing values and solutions
RoryHearne The “biggest threat to investment fund’s returns” would be govt removing all regulations that currently prevent ordinary people from building houses. Supply goes up, price goes down. No more nimbyism. If rent controls worked, why not cap rent at €150 pm, very affordable
Rural property owners (many of whom are wealthy FG TDs and Councillors) have been benefitting from discounted property for decades while Dublin people pay all the tax. Some kind of additional rural property tax levy would help level the playing field.
RoryHearne They are accepting it and will continue to do so. They will vote in another FF FG government