Irish Property Market chat II - *read mod note post #1 before posting*

Sorry for keeping you waiting. Glad you listened

I’d see this as completely the opposite.

Perhaps a residence will again become something that can be attained through hard work by anyone, rather than (as is the case these days) increasingly a privilege for only those fortunate enough to receive money from their parents.

How will it become something that can be attained through hard work by anyone?

Digital tech nomads come in with help from Google/Facebook and outbid the locals. Investment funds outbid the locals, and they are buying up single-family homes throughout the world.

At least with parental inheritance a few normal people can buy houses as well. Turning the country into a tax farm isn't going to help other ordinary people. It just closes off one of the last avenues of escape, as most people cannot attain incomes that will match house price inflation.

Like I said, we're in a globalised market with investment funds and the like buying up estates.

Does Owen O'Reilly have numbers/stats showing that it is Irish individuals who are distorting the market because I find that difficult to believe.

A high-paying job is not available to every hard working person. Do you think 90% of the population are lazy and unambitious?

Can I suggest, rather then saying what you "think"....try backing up such a statement with any facts or figures.

How many people downsize when the reach retirement…The number must be very low. Most people that buy do so that they will have somewhere to live come retirement when their income drops. These people don’t benefit from higher house prices unless they downsize.

likewise you assume that immigration is low paid in most cases it’s not it’s qualified people coming to work here being paid good money.

houses are expensive to build and if a developer can’t make a profit because it costs more to build than he/she will get when selling houses won’t be built. This is what happened for 10 years and one of the main reasons we have a shortage of housing. Unless they are able to build cheaper due to lower land, material and labour costs then there won’t be cheaper houses regardless of who is in government.

There is virtually no money to be made downsizing unless you have a house in the million+ bracket or are willing to move into a **** apartment.

I cannot see labour costs dropping in Dublin substantially. The cost of traveling into the city is horrendous. Most trades people have midsized or large vans these cost 80 cent-a euro/KM to run, add payment for 2-3 hours travelling. Materials may drop back a bit but not until oil and gas prices drop. Professional costs are crazy in construction at present however certification for building standard's and energy upgrades will keep these high.

You are basically left with land costs. However it takes 2-5 years to get sites to build stage. Interest rising will add cost to this.

How many capital cities in the developed world has reasonable housing costs

This is anecdotal, but I know two people who have broken up with their partners due to stress caused by an inability to find housing. I would not even like to imagine what its like to have children in this situation.

Also, I think that we need to clear about what is meant by "younger generations." The worst affected generation is, once again, the millennial generation, which is now composed mostly of people in their 30s to early 40s. These are not "young" people. Rather, they are adults who a few decades ago would be homeowners and parents comfortably. Instead, they are burdened with paying for the bad decisions of older generations who will enjoy pensions and retirements that are a pipe-dream for everyone else.  

Of course, many people of this generation are still managing to get a home, but it is a diminishing proportion relative to the whole. Furthermore, to buy a house means taking on hundreds of thousands of euros in debt with rising interest rates on the horizon.  

To speak for myself, I am sickened by what I have seen here in the last few years. Maybe I am naïve, but it seems to me that in the past, people cared more for the well-being of the future generations. Today, it would seem that we only think of lining our own nests, consequences be damned.

It's rather a meme to blame boomers, but there is a reason it persists

Table 5 in above cso link is a good one, shows average total income per person on a county by county basis. The "cheaper counties" for housing outside the cities, have much lower total incomes. Which really is something we all already know.