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

How many permits are given to Indians working in tech and earning less than 45k, vs Indians working in essential skilled roles earning less than 45k?

All nationalities have at least 50% of employees earning less than 45k & indians have the lowest percentage in that group.

Your experience is the outlier here - with the exception of Accountancy firms, all other MNCs (especially tech) have graduate hires who are all majority non Irish.

And the extra workload on visa hires is very real - it's something that regularly comes up in tech networking events, the experience of visa workers in tech who are too afraid to stand up for their rights. The lack of proper unionisation too does them no favours, though the advice we often give is to organise collectively for better conditions.

You gave the statistic on their income, why don't you tell us how it breaks down? How many exactly are working in essential roles in healthcare?

Hi folks,

I'm thinking to buy a house in Kells (Rockfield housing estate about 10 mins walk to the south of the centre).
It's a 4-bed built in the 1970s on a site of about 700 sq. metres; decent sized gardens ... I might get it for about 290k.
I've been renting near Leixlip for the past 10 years & although I'd like to buy nearby Leixlip; I can't really find anything in my budget.

Living:

Anyway, for Kells I see a few mentions here & there of the 'good side' and the 'bad elements' of the town.
Q1. Is Rockfield one of the nice places or stuffed with the bad elements?
Q2. Any hope of the locals accepting a non-Kells man or would I always be an outsider with all heads turning to look as I walk into my new local ... I'm originally Mullingar; we've no children at the moment.

Commuting:

Q3. Anyone doing the commute to Ashtown or Blanchardstown ... bus ... car ... tough? I've a car.

Working:

Q4. Is there much employment in the Industrial Park outside Kells ... I see there's something on the road for Cavan?
Q5. Navan?

Thanks in advance,
Tony

No, you're the one claiming you have the data, and that that a substantial portion of the roles are in health care.

I'll take that as an admittance that you have no actual stats, though, so.

I never once said that work permits are mostly going to IT roles, I said far too many work permits are going to unskilled / low paid roles. Which your very own quoted statistic, that 50% of Indian people are earning less than €45k a year, completely confirms.

Anyone earning less than €45k a year in Ireland in 2025 in an MNC should not be getting issued a work permit, during a housing crisis. Thats entry level, or unskilled, low paid work.

There have additionally been multiple posters in this very thread who work for MNCs posting exactly the same about their experiences.

A minimum income requirement of €34k a year to get a working visa, as things stand currently in Ireland, is very clearly far too low. And 40,000 non-EU work visas issued a year, during the worst housing crisis in the history of the state, is clearly far too high.

The government should immediately double the income requirement at the least, which would result in thousands, or tens of thousands, of fewer non-EU immigrants a year, making a significant difference to the housing crisis overnight.

What about critical skilled labour in healthcare and so forth?

I thought we agreed that those roles should still be covered by non-EU visas.

Remember also that the data includes part time workers.

Indians are the highest paid nationality in the country, but some part time indian workers in IT and all other sectors may earn 45k or less, with a pro-rata salary much higher.

I dont disagree with a visa entry salary requirement for non-critical skills, but its impossible to say how that impact the current non-EU labour force, when we cant see the current job role data.

Wishful thinking a recession doe not equal property crash in fact there is a real decoupling of this since our immigration policy has seen our population explode. The only thing that is going to bring prices down is new builds and that's going in the wrong direction.

The rent prices are set by the renters.

The renters pay what they can afford to pay and the many high paid jobs in Dublin mean rent prices are high, especially when coupled with a lack of new rental supply.

The councils have no choice but to pay those high rents, otherwise they would not be able to access private properties for social housing.

If we have a large recession and salaries in the top 20% range tanked, rent prices will come down naturally, both for private renters and by default, local councils also.

If the lcoal councils could embark on their own house building programmes, they wouldn't need to pay market rents in the first place and they would also help reduce market rents, by removing themselves from the demand side of private rentals.

Win Win.

There does not seem to be any will amongst govt or local councils to self build and become self sufficient, unfortunately.

Housing targets for self build govt homes should be mandatory.

Each council having its own target for self build homes & this target should not include part 5 allocation of private stock or acquisitions of existing private stock.

And the intergenerational mortgage talk returns. They must think we are goldfish

I don't know if you ever saw the John Oliver mockumentary on gun control. Savage piece of political commentary but one takeaway from it that always stuck in my mind was when a republican politician was being interviewed he was asked what he felt was the most important thing in politics. The answer he gave was "to be re-elected."

This is the same mantra of FF and FG, get re-elected no matter the cost. Even if that means 16,000 homeless and a 1 bed costs €5k/month the most important thing is to hold on to power.

Absolutely; there are a lot of people who are delighted with how the property market is working for them. At the same time, which is probably a new phenomenon - there are a lot of people who would like to see the whole thing burn to the ground as they don't feel the market works for them.

A lot of people in their 20s and even 30s renting seem to be reluctant to see house prices and rents going up over time; as the older people die out and home ownership continues to plummet, there will be a certain point where the latter group of younger people probably have more voting power and this will be reflected in housing policies. A real case of "pulling up the drawbridges" at the moment but I don't think it is sustainable longer term.

Which other party do you think would deliver more new homes than FFG?

The problem with that belief it requires you to believe all these home owners looking after themselves have no children. Parents don't want their kids living with them forever and understand rentals and house prices being high is going to cause that.

Not sure why you think people that own homes ALL want to keep prices high for themselves when most don't plan to move anywhere or cash in their homes. Is there something going on in your own family to believe home owners don't care about their children?