Falling House Prices

I'm not sure I'd agree with you there. Was alot more for sale back then than there is now.

What a politely written reply. Thank you, sir.

Firstly, nothing about what I said suggested that supply was not an issue. Supply is an issue, but we cannot build enough housing to accommodate an ever increasing population due to inwards migration. Even if it were possible to build that many houses or apartments, would we even want to? It was possible to build something like 80k units a year in the Celtic tiger days, but many of them were of poor quality. Besides that, bulldozing green areas to build habitation blocks isn't very "green", is it.

To your second point, this is correct. Prices have gone up because of the availability of credit. The state does not (in theory) control banks, but it does make the decision to borrow money. The 50-60 odd billion that was "printed" during the lockdowns was borrowed by the state and let loose into the domestic economy.

Free Market Fruitcakes....good name for a band. I respect that you disagree, but you really don't need to call names...

Time to lower the VAT rate to zero on building 5+ story apartment buildings inside the canals.

Incentivise raising density.

There was a huge boom in building before the crash. Money was handed out like confetti by the banks, even for second and third homes. Crash came. Most people lost their jobs. Any who were left were fearful of losing their jobs. Nobody wanbted to buy. Overhang of property that was built was toxic. Nobody thought house prices would ever recover. People who thought they could afford somewhere was worried about thngs getting worse and losing their jobs, so sat on their savings and rented, because rents plummeted too (all the investment properties that people were encouraged to buy before the crash).

It was a sh1t show for many years.

I was going to by an investment apartment for €60k in 2012. I thought it wasnt worth the risk. The very apartment i saw recently for sale for a few hundred thousand more :)

Absolutely I have no idea why are so many people imported from outside Europe. These jobs could be easily done by Irish graduates. Perhaps these grads were too lazy to apply for the jobs.

Where is this cost coming from the vast majority of materials have come down or stayed at the same level without exception. So where is it coming from. There is absolutely no transparency in this sector they are the biggest con artists living. Even when the gullible Irish people stop buying due to the fact that the quoted prices are unaffordable they lobby government to pay the higher prices meaning they don't have to entertain price drops. The game is rigged.

It could simply be that they came here 7 years ago, worked saved got citizenship and now want to buy

More people means more GDP growth. The state can play the "diversity" harp all it wants, but immigration is at gruesomely high levels because more people means more consumption, and more consumption means more growth and more competition for wages and accommodation. Win win for a neo-lib.

I agree and think this is driving some of the hiring choices, are newer foreign grads or even experienced expecting lower wages?

Absolutely well believe it.

Plus they do work harder.