Inside Dublin’s Housing Crisis

Then what do you say the underlying causes are?

As mentioned above, it is not about density. Rather, it's a matter of the availability of housing and services. To call immigration "unfettered" may be hyperbolic on my part, but I'm not so sure that it is.

I'll accept that point. Indeed, you are correct that immigration is a symptom. The actual problem, in my eyes, is neo-liberal economic models, or globalisation as it's called sometimes.

Reading the start of this forum from 2018, regarding Coveney and Eoghan Murphy's actions is quite telling

Let's compare your suggestion with mine. Your government led approach would mean more social housing which could be built using the large budget surplus. The problem with that is the big budget surpluses are likely to be available for a limited time and wouldn't be enough to build all the houses necessary.

My idea of taxing housing is designed to force those who benefitted from the 200 billion borrowed since 2009 to pay for that. And by exempting new builds and first time buyers from the property tax, we will get a market driven construction boom and affordable housing for the masses.

Couldn't they create incentives and disincentives though. For example a heavier tax on certain building project types for the next 5 years.

Sure could.

They can... they can change zoning, increase or introduce new tax. Of course there is more money in commercial. This mess is entirely the government's creating, I don't want to hear about bog bad developers chasing the highest returns. We voted in the government to look after our interest, not developers...

We got the boom but we chickened out of the bust by borrowing 200 billion euro. The cost of Enda Kenny's cowardice is now beginning to make itself known. Anyone who thinks we can spend our way out of an inflationary problem is mistaken.

Enda Kenny likely just did whatever his civil servant handlers told him to do. We don't have leaders in Ireland; we have pension collectors who read from a hymn sheet written by ideologues and/or lunatics. It wouldn't have mattered who was in power back then. All the major parties are more of less the same.

That said, I agree that we threw away an opportunity in 2008. If we did not think of our own immediate comforts and rather looked to the future, we could have balanced state spending. Yes, it would have been hard, but all that we really did was to pump funny money into an already broken system. Now, 15 years later, the state has managed to inflate property prices back to near enough to where they were in 2007, and to inflate rent prices to unheard of highs. The fact that this comes at the cost of the future of younger generations doesn't seem to be an issue.

As I've always said, the "boomer" meme is overly simplistic and not a great way to explain the current problem, but it hangs around for a reason.

The tail doesn't wag the dog. It was politicians, FF before and FG afterwards that dictated economic policy.

Housing (and (construction in general) was used as an vehicles to drive us to boom and bust. But also to drive investment into the country for the recovery afterwards.

However thats a different issue to selling off public housing, then outsourcing that demand into private housing sector. Causing supply issues in the private housing. Then driving even more demand and outsourcing that into a smorgasbord of unsuitable temporary accommodation, B&Bs, hotels and tents.

Well they had to buy food etc too, so not all on their mortgages. Maybe your solution should focus on taxing those who benefited from the borrowing. Although I can't see that really flying! Same with the Covid spending, it was only spent on some people. During the bust and subsequently I have remained in employment while paying the 8% USC on the majority of my earnings.

His solution is basically, is there anything to be said for another mass.

No definitely just the private sector bailout and the lunar base..

All of this about a post to an old thread which was written at 4am, what were they drinking / smoking.

Some of this stems from EK but it goes back further. The solution is to stop relaying in private LL's for social housing. The state should build their own housing, not buy in new or secondhand on the open market. But we stopped building social housing back in the 90's and early 2000's

That would free up a lot of rental stock, they would reduce rents or at least freeze them and over time with inflation and wage growth they would become more affordable.

Houses can be valued based on the expected rental income somewhere between 10 and 20 years annual rental income, lets take 15. Monthly rent x 12 x 15. As there is more rental stock and rents are falling or frozen, you now have more affordable private houses.

The current government don't have clue, at a time when they want to make better use of land and have families see living in apartment as viable they are lowering the building standards. We are doomed.