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

Renting is dead money if you are in a position to buy, and it makes financial sense.

If you are renting because you are waiting for prices to come down before eventually buying its dead money.

If you were renting because you thought it was cheaper than buying, its dead money.

If you are renting because you have no intention of staying in the area in the future its not dead money. But if you are planning on buying somewhere else where prices are also going to go up in the future - dead money :)

If you are renting in Ireland dont expect the rental market to ever be functional again in your lifetime. We are way past the point of no return. I could be wrong, but i dont feel like testing it out while renting.

Nightmare scenario would be to be renting when we retire.

Your post reminds me of the fact that investors loose more money from missed opportunities investing because they are expecting a crash than they actually would have if they had invested and the market crashed….. I guess it comes down to people thinking they’re clever than everyone else.. Same people daydream about how much money they would have made if they invested in Apple 20/30 years ago.

if you are lucky enough to be in a position to buy and continue to rent then I would agree it’s dead money. However there are lots of reasons people rent that aren’t just about money.

Honestly theres so many edge cases the idea of a linear list of dead money vs non dead money is a bit restrictive. It seems like you are trying to turn what is quite a complex and grey topic into a black and white one which I don't believe it can ever be.

Yes I envisage the same, a lot of people approaching retirement not owning their homes. I hope government will think how will they will deal with these people in future.

There's many who don't chose the situation they are in. The only houses near me are defective block, scummy neighbourhoods or not able to buy due to cute hoorism surrounding planning.

There's an element of finger pointing in many posts that implies many people chose to rent right now, again trying to black and white an often complex issue and ignore the real issues underlying this situation.

Exactly the same positon here I can afford to and would love to settle down but I can just not because what is being offered is not suitable for me to live in (if suitable to live in at all). Throughout the last year of bidding, going sale agreed and getting the rug pulled away on two (and soon to be three) occasions the worst part is not that there are no houses its the attitudes of people that I know and online. In many cases people seem to talk at you and not to you.

Current place I'm sale agreed on waited nearly 3 months for the contracts and turns some of the planning stipulations havnt been followed (the expensive ones). Called the estate agent to get an idea of what the story is with it and was told I could do them at my own expense. He was politely reminded that if the bank won't lend on it then it's unlikely anyone else will be able to buy either.

Honestly that is probably the reality of the situation. However for some reason it's acceptable in accomodation but when that same don't care I got paid attitude is exhibited in other places people go wild. The same attitude of don't care I still get paid for example in the HSE or things like public transport drives people on here to complain.

That might be the way of it but the same people spending 12 hours in ED shouldn't then be entitled to complain when the shoe is on the other foot.

I backed out of a sale in the summer when a lot of little things were adding up to it being a bad deal and a bit deceitful on the seller/EA's part too. I was in the lucky position of having a cheap no lease place to rent while I looked so didn't have to just bend over and take it. I reckon that's what sellers/EA's think most people will do when problems arise before contracts are signed.

Months later it was still on the market and last week the ad was just deleted from Daft, MyHome and the EA's website so looks like this time their shíte wasn't rewarded for once.

Even the great financial crash of 2007 wouldnt do that :)

SF - you have to laugh every time they open their mouths. And the time O'Broin (he wrote books you know) was on talking about how much landlords can deduct and got it all completely wrong. And never a word said again.

Not at all. Relax planning and zoning restrictions and roll back building regulations. Remove the CGT exemption on principal private residences. Remove the other elements of tax & SW systems (means tests, Fair Deal, dwelling house CAT exemption etc.) that favour maximising property over other investments. Change the LPT to a land value tax, while at the same time reducing other taxes.

Of course I know SF don't plan to do any of this and it was just a soundbite, I'm just pointing out that it's not impossible.

Ultimately, if any other product fell dramatically in price, you'd be happy. Your living standards would have increased. Why should housing be any different?

Removing all the state-derived costs (development levies, water connection costs, VAT etc) and subsidising other stuff (road works developers are asked to do, electricity connection costs) would probably still come nowhere close to that.

[and this would basically just be subsidising rather than cutting the real cost anyway]

So are they proposing to cut building standards then? We do have quite high requirements for new houses in energy efficiency, but cutting those wouldn't go down well with the pseudo-green European group they're in.