"average Dublin house prices should fall to ‘the €300,000 mark" according to Many Lou McD.

Well, that's true, but they won't be able to blame others anymore. They might realise not everything is easy. If we have a SF government, they will be coming in with the state having full coffers, full employment, no GFC, no pandemic, inflation easing, so no excuses.

No issue with the goal, but let's be realistic here, it is fantasy to think a change in government could achieve that. No other country in the world has a situation whereby a barista in a cafe can afford an apartment like that within a reasonable distance of their employment in the capital city.

Well, maybe Pyongyang, but you wouldn't get heat or light or internet or freedom.

For context:

Dublin €7,012 (Q1, 2023)

Well however I believe in the Scandinavian countries, it is fairly common practice that once you get your first job after leaving school or university you move out of home or student accommodation and get your own place. Although things are getting a bit more expensive in recent years, the generally better standard of accommodation was one of the reasons they did not need such stringent lockdowns and other restrictions during the Covid crisis. There are other places in Europe with a far better rental market than Ireland.

I've said already on this thread that I don't think the Shinners will bring about such a change in Ireland. Their thinking is too Marxist and simplistic. I regard them, however, as a necessary phase before real change can occur. I don't think it is unrealistic in the longer run.

Try renting anything other than a shoebox in Stockholm.

I don't think there was any coherent plan to be honest after the crash as to how housing was to be supplied.

But I already said that I don't agree with Sinn Fein. They may however be a necessary stage before the proper solutions can be brought in.

I certainly think that Sinn Fein could solve the housing problem if elected and that house prices could fall to €300k.

However, those aims can only be achieved by collapsing the economy and driving the multinationals out of Ireland resulting in mass emigration, a population decrease and a reduction in living standards for everyone. Quite possible that two to three years of Sinn Fein government could see that happening.

Not sure if its been posted yet but O' Broin was on the last word talking about this topic

The biggest take away for me and it was the same during the last election debates is that he cant ever say exactly specifically what actions or steps he would take if he was in power, its air fairy stuff of removing red tape, streamlining planning, massively ramping up housing completion numbers and reducing the soft costs of building such as development levys to reduce new home costs but absolutely zero what he would do to achieve these things!

He's already said SF are against removing VAT from new build costs so I dont know how hes going to get build costs down.

If he directs Irish water, ESB and local councils to not charge any fees for new housing developments that money will have to come from state coffers.

He's a massive critic of the LDA which to be fair aren't going great but are still doing something for affordable housing so who knows what will happen to them and their pipeline of housing if he gets into power.

He says planning needs to be streamlined but SF are constant objectors.

For an educated man who portrays himself as an expert in housing he really needs to grow some backbone and commit to something, even if he said he would rewrite the building regulations to make them less onerous and pull local fire officers back in line to reduce build costs that would at least be something!

The stats on that page are eye opening, what we have been spending on HAP 😮

This is why naively putting more taxpayers money into the pockets of landlords or giving them tax incentives won't work. We've been throwing money at them for years and things have only gotten worse.

Planning delays are a very real thing that kill off viable projects and the government have had a few goes at speeding things up by effectively allowing large developers to bypass local authorities (admitting by extension they are a roadblock) but they have rolled back on that again now with all the who-ha in an Bord Pleanala - there is no good answer because if you try to speed up the process too much you will piss off the local communities who voted you in.

It would have made sense to give the LDA the ability to go use the Part 8 planning process to move things along but even the small allowance in their powers to push past local authority roadblocks holding up usage of key sites was met with uproar in the Dail and Seanad that local councillors were being ignored - you really cant win unless you want to go back to the good old Celtic Tiger days of brown envelope planning approvals which would be very ironic for SF the end up there instead of FF or FG!