Will the good times ever return?

Sorry, that was my point. You said a property benefits from public works.

Surely public works are for the public, the people living in property. How does an unoccupied property benefit?

If you think private rentals are unfair. Ban them completely.

LL's have nothing to do with housing supply, or the shortage thereof. It's baffling why you think they do.

You'll still not explained WHY Private Rental its exploration or why it's unfair. If there was surplus of supply OR surplus public housing. Would a private rental still be exploitative?

Renting is capitalism. If you want housing run under a marxist ideology then you'll need a change of pollical system.

The market is heavily regulated. There are rules in place to prevent people without savings, with unstable jobs etc from getting a mortgage. This is due to the risk that giving them a loan causes, to them in the case of negative equity and to the banks and wider society in the case of a downturn. We tried what you are suggesting before and it didn't end well.

Good times...

Theres only about 48k of that figure are long term vacant and could be in the middle of nowhere and not fit for habitation. Who knows.

Sub prime lending? Ireland's Financial crisis was created at home by banks over borrowing and a govt that allowed them to to do it. The same govt fuelled the economy by pumping primary the property market and credit bubble. That was all home grown. So when the sub prime crisis happened, Ireland economy was a house of cards. You've already suggested going down the same route of letting the leash off the banks again. Madness.

I'm not advocating an open market for all housing. The only way to fix this is stop boom and bust economic policies. Build a % housing that can't be commoditized. Stop overheating the economy.

The German regulator warned Ireland about Irish Banks borrowing in German well before the subprime crisis. The authorities, here basically stuck their fingers in their ears. Indeed the Govt here in my opinion seemed to deliberately distanced themselves from the Irish regulator, to keep the party going. Apart from the issues with the Irish regulator and the Central bank.

It's the rules that are now in place, but weren't back then, which restrict Irish Banks now. Which certain posters wants dropped now so they can buy a gaff and join the party now.

We've are still overheating the economy (just differently) which we can see in the issue with housing. It's not going to change until a Govt, decides to commit to a painful different approach to housing.

Sub prime is quite different the US where in some states you can give the key back. In Ireland you still (or did) keep the debt. Its so a small pool of banks and places to run from it.

That's not the same thing.

By Sub prime in Ireland I mean lending 100% mortgages at 8-9x income, especially for those with relatively unstable jobs. It wasn't quite at the level of the US of course. Construction and related was making up more than 20% of the economy at the time. We were building 90k houses a year at one point. Many of those buying the properties were working in the industry.

Kids have alot more available to them than we had in the 80's. We had alot more than our parents had in 50's, and 60's

I'm not sure if he was implying Irish Mortgage holders (and that generation) were the cause of the crisis. Whereas it was down to the banks and the regulation of same. Out of curiosity looking at a recent article from 2019.

Will the good times return?

Unclear to me why you interject the nonsense term 'World Shite Centre' into your narrative. Assuming you intend to refer to the World Trade Centre, I would maintain that while many areas of the world suffer heavy consequences from international trade -we in Ireland are generally beneficiaries in regard to the access it grants us to a whole array of technological and other material goods.

The WTC would have been part of the machinery that managed the plethora od negotiations , agreements and supply chains etc. from which we ultimately derive benefit. The attack on these buildings was a dastardly act which condemned thousands of innocent workers from all backgrounds to a grisly death. I don't think the destruction of the WTC should be subjected to such verbal vilification notwithstanding any legitimate of globalisation that could be advanced.

We live in a menacing international climate with many contending blocs. We must choose sides. I stand with Europe . the US and more broadly the 'West. For better or worse -it's the civilisational complex where I was formed and where I belong.