The small amount of new houses being built.... houses on top of houses, no space anywhere.

Was in a new estate recently. Narrow roads, no parking except for in front of house. No front garden, miniscule back garden, very small footprint, plastic window cills, no chimney.

Not for me, literally the only thing going for it was it's a rated.

Well now, to be fair, it is a valid solution, among several solutions. There are hundreds of thousands of decent properties for sale across the whole of the EU at very reasonable prices, and there's no particular obstacle to any Irish person buying one and living in it.

If you have a lump sum available and choose to use it as a 10/15/20% deposit instead of buying an alternative property outright, that's up to you. No-one's forcing you to take out a 30-year mortgage so you can live in the same country as your Mammy.

I remember in 1980 - 1985, calling to my friends houses, 1800 sqft houses were fairly normal.

People on one income could buy 1800 sq ft houses in regional towns.

Now, houses are smaller.

Real incomes have increased, yet houses are smaller. Crazy.

In Germany people most people live in higher density housing. And large houses with large gardens cost a fortune.

However it does mean that you can afford to rent in a city for very little (Compared to Ireland). It also means that there's good public transport links. With Ireland's urban sprawl there's very little incentive to build much rail/tram/subway infrastructure. It's a lot harder to serve massive housing estates with trams than it is in Germany.

Where is all the extra infrastructure for all these new homes and population increases? How many new schools, hospitals, water treatment plants do we have to accommodate the increase over the last twenty years?

2006 was almost the peak of the bubble, I bought in 2004 and the property is not long back to what I paid then following the crash - I am in Suburbs of Dublin - I would say my place is as affordable now as it was in 2004 in relative terms.

Loads of new builds have kept the prices of the 'older' stock lower.

Commute has become an absolute nightmare but, lovely area on weekends.

Not really crazy - Ireland was a poor country back then. Land was cheap, builders' wages, materials were cheap relative to now. Also houses back then were a different animal to houses now - no insulation, single pane windows, cold and damp

How is the population supposed to be limited to a fixed figure exactly? Maybe a lottery to euthanise the excess people? Forced sterilisation? Seems a bit bonkers

They should be building tall and affordable apartment blocks all over the city centre but instead are building them in the middle of housing estates and in areas where the public transport and roads etc won't be able to keep up.

Wonderful, i hope they build lots more houses with this thinking in mind. Having a nice garden and a playground across the road would be brilliant but they are certainly not essential.

Absolutely nothing no playground? no summer projects, no football or GAA camp, no family resource center.

I didn't see you other post I thought ever new build has to have a creach?

Who says that they don't?

Myself and my partner both work, mainly in an office, and we absolutely love having a decent sized garden to come home to. Yes it requires some work but not as much as you're making out.

Who doesn't enjoy having their own outdoor space to relax in on a nice sunny evening or on a Summer's day?