Who are buying all the new houses?

Discovered a while back that we were outbid by the council on a house we were looking to buy for ourselves. Quite literally my tax money working against me.

David McWilliams said a month or 2 ago that the state was buying 80-85% of all new builds in estates. I haven't heard one person contradict him in the meantime.

The average couple gets to fight over the scraps leftover.

Where abouts in the country and what are the asking prices? I'd be very surprised about that unless they're looking for a mad amount.

Either over priced or not in a very desirable location surely?

I just think if there was a chance to enter a government job with good career prospects, a good pension etc, then it would attract a lot of folk in the industry.

And the Gov about to announce a new building plan, which us and them know, won't ever be hit.

Labour and Greens objecting to smaller apartments in the High Court.

Well, it is and it isn't.

Theres about a thousand apartments for sale in Dublin at the moment for example.

About 15 thousand properties countrywide. Yes its very low but not impossible by any means. Irish people just dont want to live in apartments though. For any length of time.

I know people who can afford one but would rather "wait" (for what?) and see it out in their childhood bedrooms.

The state employing private builders will not reduce supply overall - that is because the bottleneck in housing delivery is (from the horses mouth) zoned and serviced land.

We have excess labour, just not enough for them to work on. A number of mid sized builders are having to take on projects in UK because there isnt enough in ROI to keep all their staff going, the alternative is shrinking the company.

Some guaranteed building work from the state on state land would be a boon to the construction industry.

I'd love to know why we're still approving planning for offices, and building offices when there is nowhere for the office workers to live. Isn't this what planning is for?

Just because something was offices - does it still need to be offices? - when we need homes more than offices. Why do we build offices in the centre or the east of the city and make everybody commute across the offices? Not everybody wants to live in an apartment for all their lives but lots of folks do, at least for a short while, until they've decide what part of the world/country they want to live. And by the way I don't think the solution to this is to build smaller, shittier apartments - as the current 'government' is proposing at the behest of their developer friends.

The old Reuters building (as I know it) at the junction of Northumberland road and the canal is currently being demolished - it would make a lot of sense for this to be apartments. It's a nice area, has schools, shops nearby etc? As far as I can hear its going to be offices. There's an empty site at the junction of the SCR and the Rathmines Rd - there used to be corporation flats in there - I believe that's going to be offices. The bit they have re-developed so far has some apartments - but it's mainly Amazon offices at the moment.

Apparently the Kevin Street development (Camden Yard?) has stalled - that was going to be offices/apartments. The Government should CPO the site and build apartments.

The old IDA building on Wilton Place was demolished and replaced by - offices - again shops and schools nearby, a nice park which somehow seems to have fallen into the hands of a private company. Strangely enough yer man Collison from Stripe, who was whinging about the lack of homes in Dublin has his companies offices there.

The city is dying - businesses complain about falling footfalll. People are commuting from the likes of Navan - guess what the Navan bus stops at Wilton Place - probably to deliver Stripe workers who can't live in the city. People who live in the city will shop and socialise in the city.

There are solutions to our problems but we don't elect politicians who are willing to solve these problems.