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Cate McCurry
The Times
Cate McCurry
The Times
A generation of workers has been locked out of home ownership because of Ireland’s broken housing system, a Sinn Féin TD has said.
Pearse Doherty said the report from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) on the cost of delivering apartments in Dublin made for grim reading.
The report, released earlier this week, showed that the cost of a two-bed apartment is about €359,000 for a low-rise in the suburbs, rising to €619,000 for a high-rise unit in the city centre.
Mr Doherty said that a working couple would need a deposit of €36,000 and to have a gross income of more than €90,000 in order to buy the cheapest apartment mentioned in the report.
“The cheapest apartments in Dublin city centre were a staggering €439,000 — to buy that property, the couple would need a deposit of €44,000 and a gross salary of €112,000,” Mr Doherty said.
“These prices are beyond the reach of the vast majority of workers and families in the state. Under the watch of Fine Gael in government the price of homes has risen so high that working people on good incomes can no longer afford to buy their own home. “An entire generation of workers have been locked out of home ownership.” He said that 70 per cent of the apartments in the report are not even for sale. “They’re being developed on a build-to-rent market, snapped up by institutional investors, vulture funds or so-called cuckoo funds, who are exploiting the scarcity of housing to turn over massive profits,” he said. “The rents they charge are excessive and a disgrace. If ever there was proof of how broken your housing system is, then this is it.” Leo Varadkar, the tánaiste, acknowledged that the cost of housing in Ireland is “far too high”, especially for those who want to buy their first home. He added: “That’s particularly so in the cities, and that is particularly so in central Dublin.” Mr Varadkar accused Sinn Féin of tackling the housing crisis in principle but being against it in practice. He claimed the party’s record on social housing in the Republic’s local authorities and in Northern Ireland was “very poor”. Mr Varadkar said that Eoghan Murphy, the former minister for housing, added 6,000 units to the country’s social housing stock in 2019. “North of the border, where Sinn Féin is in government and has been in government for 13 years of the last 20 years, provided much less social housing on a per capita basis,” he told the Dáil. “Sinn Féin provided less social housing that Eoghan Murphy did in 2019, that is your record and that is a verifiable fact. “When it comes to private housing, we need to build more of that because people need homes to buy because people want to own their own home in Ireland.” He accused Sinn Féin councillors of voting against zoning land for housing, housing developments and mixed housing. Mr Varadkar also said that rent pressure zones had been successful in slowing rent inflation. Mr Doherty denied that his party has opposed any social or affordable housing developments in Dublin. “Seriously tánaiste, what planet are you living on? Seriously, it’s time for you to get your head out of the sand,” he said. “You’ve been in government for ten years, you’ve been a taoiseach for a period of that time, yet you try to blame everybody else for a part of this issue, but it doesn’t wash. “The reality is, this is your housing crisis, the reality is it costs €439,000 to buy the cheapest apartment in Dublin city under your government.”Advertisem*nt
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