Price of social housing

Council will buying houses for council tenants from a private developer at 456,000 euro a pop. I don't know why i am working my put off, paying huge chunks of my income in tax.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/developer-plans-to-sell-532-homes-for-social-housing-deal-worth-e1-5-billion-1302779.html

developer says a 3 bed appartment for 5 people will cost 779,000 euro and cheekily states not a final costing

Is it any wonder normal people, and even quite well-off people cannot afford a home when the government just spunks all our tax money like that

porkmaster

The tough, and correct, decisions have been avoided like the plague until now.

You opened your national housing stock to foreign and domestic speculators, let people from anywhere on Earth move into them, didn't build anywhere near enough extra, and now are shocked that the price has spiralled out of hand.

There were obvious steps that should have been taken years ago. Restrict investment from leeches, restrict migration, restructure social housing, restructure the MNC tax haven and their obviously detrimental effect on everything but the tax take. Easy first steps.

But no, the profits were too juicy. Great. The multiple bills for the party have just started arriving, but who's going to pay?

Gusser09

Working people should benefit from better housing in their areas before scroungers.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058245631/price-of-social-housing

the council have nothing but contempt for the average worker

Xterminator

the council should be housing those on the waiting list. they are not responsible for the state of the housing market in Ireland, nor the high prices it costs to deliver a unit of housing. why the anger is directed at the council for fulfilling its obligations.

Does op really think there should be no social housing in ireland, or those in need of social housing she be left waiting for the housing crisis to abate before getting anyone on the housing list housed? no reasonable person would say that.

direct your anger at the people who have perpetuated the housing crisis. not the vulnerable in society - and lets be clear OPs jibe about how they are busting their 'put' off is a thinly veiled jibe at people who cannot work, or earn so little they qualify for social housing.

i've worked all my life, but im not a 'irish tory' voter to be told the single mothers etc of Ireland are to blame for the housing crisis. It lies with the successive governments failure to address the issues in any meaning ful way, and let me tell you you wont find any of the TD's in Ireland on the social housing list!

Pussyhands

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119054959#Comment_119054959

Councils should buy the houses from the developer and then sell them on the open market to FTBs. Then use the money to CPO vacant run down properties. Use the extra money from the sale of the former to upgrade the latter. Then put the scroungers into the upgraded property.

Pussyhands

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119055770#Comment_119055770

Have you actually heard any of these council CEOs speak about this?

There was a prime time segment on councils buying properties a few months back. One of the lads maybe 1 or 2 steps below the CEO of DCC said they do not care about prices or agreements as long as someone gets housed. It was one of the most crazy comments i've heard from someone in such a high position of power. The answer was in a response to a question about why councils are taking 25 year leases, where maintenance is covered by the council and after the 25 years the house has to be handed back in exact same condition it was given in. (i.e full scale refit)

It's madness and horrible value for money.

cruizer101

The people making the decisions, senior council officials, don't give a f**k. By the time the problems with long leases occur they will be long gone on a nice generous pension, it won't be their problem.

JimmyVik

Middle income tax payer is the only loser in this country.

ballyharpat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119055834#Comment_119055834

You've obviously never given a property to the council on the agreement that it would be handed back in the same condition. It doesn't happen. What do you suggest they do? they do not have the cash to buy and build all the houses necessary, so, they pay it every year over a period of years and hopefully, the tenant will at some point get out of social housing and be able to house themselves. As it stands, may tenants of social housing are in their for life and even their children get it then, for life, at a fraction of the price that joe soap is paying

MakersMark

Long term council employees and long term social welfare recipients have one thing in common...no accountability.

James20221

Living in Dublin on a salary of 40,000 having went to college etc I have the pleasure of paying the high rate of income tax and yet earning too much to benefit from any welfare from my taxes. Instead I have the choice of saving for years to commute from Gorey or Louth, house share with randomers or else rent a flat where I can open my oven door from my bed. Working in this country is for us chumps. Though in fairness if you are a single man you wont get a cent from the state either, its the young ones, all from certain estates, who managed to have multiple kids to many fathers by their mid 20s who are getting these houses, and while they wait to get them they complain to Joe Duffy that they are homeless because my taxes are paying them to live in the local Maldron Hotel

porkmaster

Unless you are on very good salary and a double-act, more and more people are becoming reliant on social housing. That won't last.

But as it is, attaining social housing surely must be a viable strategy by now, if not years ago. A career choice.

Four years for a degree, or four years of direct strategy toward gaining social housing. Which one is the more valuable use of time?

And you can always get the degree later after the home anyway.

It's not an attack on social housing, it's an indictment of how truly screwed the overall housing situation has become.

Ah just what Boards needs.

Another social housing and single mother bashing thread.

Do you never get bored?

porkmaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119058466#Comment_119058466

I'm certainly not bashing anyone anyway.

I said it above, it's not about social housing, it's about the utter trainwreck of the housing market at large.

It has become so absurd for most people that the idea of social housing is delirious. Similar, perhaps, to seeing someone paying 10c a litre for petrol while you're getting robbed at 2 euro from the same petrol station. The comparison is hard to not draw.

That aside, the anger should be put on the people who created such an unequal society.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119055770#Comment_119055770

ah come off it! yes social housing is a must for those that cannot work(a small fraction of those that claim they cannot work btw), but housing them in accomodation that is 3 times the cost of an average private home while taxing the homeowner into oblivion is just plain wrong. Every day in particular in Dublin, hundreds of thousands of people commute hours per day passing on their commutes, hundreds of thousands that live in social housing inside the M50, and won't be out of bed before midday. it should be the working people living inside the M50, not the non-working(for whatever reason)

Grolschevik

That said, this discussion has been flogged to death a million times before, and rarely ends well. I initially thought the original post was by one of the more prolific recent re-regs because of that.

billyhead

The whole system is a farce and a spit in the face of the ordinary decent worker who gets up of there hole to do a day's work but does not qualify for social housing. I brought in a private estate and houses were sold to the council to accomodate people on the social housing list paying probably 200 euro a month in rent and don't get up until after 12pm, in contrast to neighbours having to pay a big mortgage and child care fees. How is this right?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119058507#Comment_119058507

Well the taxpayers are certainly being flogged. Government(local and national), spending like drunken sailors on shore leave

In the end nobody wins from this spending(apart from the developer). Paying a fair price, and not the inflated mess above, would do a lot to keep prices down for everybody. Refuse to pay the price, other buyers refuse to pay the price, the developer will stop gouging.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119058518#Comment_119058518

Its not right, but the quangos and the politicians just love doing their best Jesus Christ impressions based on other peoples'(ie average working person) blood, sweat and tears.

JimmyVik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119058466#Comment_119058466

Instead of attacking the person working and paying tax so that others can get it for free or as good as, maybe you should thank him for his service.

I know, i know ... someone will be along now to say they pay rent and vat.

JimmyVik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119058501#Comment_119058501

You could house 3 families in multiple houses if you built them where its cheap to build instead on wasting all that amount on one unit in a prime area. Then people who could actually afford to buy a house might get a look in too.

Subzero3

Are the social still selling houses? A lad I get coal from said he was buying his detached house off the council for a cheap price. Don't know if he's lying or not as he's only there 10 years.

mrslancaster

Developers don't like the part5 rule, it's more profitable for them to build commercial so we're getting loads of hotels and built-to-rent but not enough houses for sale at affordable prices.

Social housing will always be needed for those who can't afford to buy, but is spending huge amounts of public money buying in expensive private developments the best use of resources? Would it be quicker and cheaper if councils were to be directly involved the same as previous generations? Why is that a non-runner now?

riclad

Re migration,, we are in the EU , people have a right to come to work, go to any cafe, shop, hotel, most of the people working there are non nationals. The economy would collapse if all the non nationals left Ireland, look at brexit , its a complete disaster, company's short of workers, UK company's struggling with regulations, dutys, tariffs because of non EU trading rules, right now a USA company can buy Irish property , rent it out, pay maybe 1 per cent tax,

I don't know how the councils were able to build 1000s of houses in the 70s, 80s and now maybe build 5000 units a year now. The council has to provide housing for old age pensioners, people on disability, allowance, single mothers etc someone needs to right an article on how the government screwed up the housing market since 2000. I think if you are a tenant for x amount of time you might have a right to buy the house maybe

I know a bloke tried to buy his house, council won't sell it to him as he is separated from his wife but not divorced he's got 50k plus in the bank he lives in a 3bed house by himself

By the way the council only rent houses to single mothers with 2 kids or maybe people with disabilitys. You can't just go on the dole and ask for a house.

I'd imagine the price of a large site in dublin is in the millions, so this has to incorporated in the cost of each house , so each house cost 300 to 400 k and that probably included vat

Women with 2 kids are living in hotels waiting for a house to be built

There's a film drama about a single mother she goes to a Council and says look lend me the money I could self build a house for maybe 100k on this site instead of living in a hotel

One example on Abbey Street theres a 4 storey old building empty for 10 years why does they Council not get a compulsory purchase order on it it could easily be turned into 8 self contained flats it would maybe cost 100k to modernise it

All the single mothers I know have cars, they work in cafes or shops and pay tax

RichardAnd

The cost cannot be measured in euros alone. The butcher’s bill for this disaster is being shouldered predominantly by younger generations, and I would wager that most of us keenly are aware of this. We’re being fleeced to keep older generations in pensions and hold this bloated monstrosity of a social welfare system afloat whilst accruing very little, if anything, in return. I would ask what the social cost of this would be. The inability to procure stable housing means that younger generations will be less likely to have children, or they will put off having children until later in life.  I am childless at 35, and the very thought of having a child whose future would be so uncertain terrifies me. What will be the outcome of that in a few decades? 

There is another aspect to all of this that never gets mentioned. Namely, what has all of this done for the reputation of the state? If the state is meant to protect its citizens and provide them with stability, then it has failed.  I myself see the state as a parasitic, malicious conglomerate of hostile individuals that sucks up resources to urinate up a wall whilst simultaneously working to utterly destroy the country that I love dearly. I doubt that I am alone in that point of view.

thegetawaycar

The part 5 social houses should be part of the planning permission and handed over for free as a requirement for planning permission. If the council want more then they should pay full price but really it's beyond crazy that the council pay upwards of 4/500k a house.

The council should also not be bidding for houses on the private market and should in no way be selling off stock. The reason they do is because they are too lazy/incapable of actually collecting the minimal rent.

Like LPT the revenue should collect social rent from anyone not paying and they should also be involved in setting the rent being paid since many don't announce when their income jumps.