Ireland has had a unique experience with housing - centring on a spectacular build-up and blow-up in the 2000s - but it is also a microcosm of a global housing problemSherry FitzGerald estimates that PRS funds have invested close to €10 billion into the Irish property market since 2011, including €8.4 billion between 2018 and 2022. Photograph: iStock
So we have prices on a perennial upward curve and fewer people able to buy and the corollary of this, more and more people renting and more people in need of social housing or the Government’s preferred option, rent supports. The report also indicates that 54 per cent of renters in the Republic require some form of state support.
Cheap money and the gradual financialisation of real estate is perhaps the best explanation for why house prices have detached themselves from their former anchor, income. In many cities, including Dublin, the pressure on private rental markets means it’s easier to get a job than a home.