Coles2 wrote:
ps200306 wrote:
Private house completions followed pretty much the same trajectory from 2008 (down 90% to from '08 to '11) -- it's not a conspiracy against social tenants.
Of course it is. Every single policy of the State has been geared towards driving up property prices. Whether that is on the supply side by allowing speculators and vulture funds to hoard zoned development land with Capital Gains exemption, deliberately avoiding a Site Value Tax which would have driven vacant sites to the market, kicking derelict building charges so far down the road so as to make them pointless, strangling local authority social housing funding (funding for housing comes from central government), relying on private developers to build affordable housing for people who can't pay for them, handing over vast quantity of rental units to scum vulture funds rather than allowing them be sold on the open market, avoiding repossessions of bankrupt Buy to Let units for years and years despite them being vacant etc etc, doing nothing effective to prevent gouging of tenants etc etc, while on the demand side they traveled the world to attract as many 'language students' and low-skill labour to replace the Irish and Polish who were emigrating. How many people have come into Ireland in the last 5 years? 100'000? 200'000? Probably a lot closer to 300'000. At a time when no housing is being built and every government policy is ensuring that speculators can make more money by doing nothing? For fuck sake.
"Not a conspiracy against social tenants"? If it's not a conspiracy then it's culpability by neglect! What the fuck did they expect to happen at the bottom of the market???
Dogma trumps reality

1) Land hoarding is an excuse much used by those on the left - yet the reality is vulture funds are dumping land at every opportunity i.e. Plenty of residential land available in large towns for less than €20k per acre.
2) Vacant site registers are compiled by local councils - local politics ensure few if any sites are placed on the register. Central government is starting to call out the failures of certain left lead councils in this matter.
3) Again in fighting and apathy at council level is preventing new social housing rather than a lack of funds from central government?
4) Harsh reality is that private building firms are much more efficient than their public sector counterpart. Does it really cost €200k plus to build a 3 bed semi-D if you already own the land? Surely you as a builder knows this?