The reason there was no bubble over the last 5 years was nothing to do with stock keeping prices static or any other such gibberish, it was because the nation was impoverished – to a large degree it still is, just the “indicators’ look “better” to make us feel “better”

Its simple supply and demand, when there is greater supply than demand prices usually drop or stay static. Its like everything in the world.

More houses are needed to reduce the steep increases in Dublin. The current situation will damage the domestic economy if people have to spend the majority of there salaries on rent/mortgages.

You have a point to a degree but the real bubble will happen if increased construction does not start soon.

A deeper issue needs to be addressed – why is there such a propensity and desire to live in Dublin. It’s dirty, overcrowded and wildly expensive in every way. Why doesn’t Government make a real drive to redress this and promote industry and economic development in Cork, Limerick, Galway etc to a much greater degree than has been the case since the foundation of the state. A real shift in attitude and philosophy is needed.

But Edna said there wasn’t any bubble….and sure Edna would know..right?

There isn’t a bubble as the demand is real, it’s not being caused by reckless lending.

Tony – Edna is always right. He believes Mayo will win an all Ireland. And that’s a certainty ….. Isn’t it ?

There isn’t a bubble you tool – supply & demand !!!

why so many ‘ thumbs down ‘? the poster is correct ,the government should be doing more to encourage investment in the country as a whole not just the capital ,

Live in Limerick, are you mad?

Dublin is killing itself.

The focus on housing growth should be spread out across the country, if that takes tax breaks and additional infrastructure for the rest of Ireland then do it.

Let people here who enjoy being working poor and paying 400k for a 3 bed terraced house do it if they want.

Mark that completely ignores the fact that there isn’t enough properties to meet demand in Dublin at the moment. When you have such a situation there’s no way that people can keep turning up their noses and the landlords know this already, if there was a surplus of properties they’d have to either repair their properties or let them for way below market value.

Beige, I too have been turning my nose up. But like I said, enough people don’t.

Ted, I can’t help but feel that supply will always be an issue. No builder is going to build enough to drive prices down.
And…pointing out the elephant in the room….social housing and rent allowance are contributing to this problem.

A couple of years ago people were maintaining that Rent Allowance was keeping rents high artificially. However, when the maximum allowable payments were reduced by a significant amount, rents did not change.

No, tenants just topped up to make up the difference, what we are seeing now is rent allowance tenants no longer able to compete with private renters. It used to be that private renters could not compete with RA tenants.

Given that you have to pay a percentage of your rent anyway and that Rent Allowance pays up to (I think) 75% of your rent, how much additional money to do you imagine people have had available to them to make up the shortfall when RA was reduced?

On the contrary, RA keeps rents artificially high in the recession as the LL knows he will never need to lower his rate beyond a certain point.

They were topping up before the RA was reduced – now they can’t afford to top up anymore, because of the increased demand from private tenants.

If you look at it from a LL’s point of view – why keep a RA tenant in a property when you can see demand rising, they increase rents out of the reach of RA tenants, in taking a Private renter in, they are guaranteeing themselves increases in rents for the next 3 years – without any need for the tenant to apply or to fight for more rent allowance.

Mark Scott – that was the case when rents were falling, now they are rising Landlords are opting for private tenants, we have seen many cases of RA tenants having to leave property because of increases to the tune of hundreds per month.

It’s not building that’s the problem. There are many apartment blocks sitting fully completed and yet the developers are waiting for the prices to rise. How can they afford to wait I want to know – is the taxpayer bankrolling them through the bailout?

In my experience rent control does work, and is the only way to manage greedy landlords.

Lived in Rotterdam for years, common practice in 2002 was to apply for tenancy and then apply to the council for a rent review. Assessors rated property and gave a point score, which correspond to different rental price brackets.

If your property scored below what you charge in rent you had two options: immediately upgrade property or reduce rent. In both cases the current tenant was retrospectively refunded the difference. Oh, and landlord had to pay council expenses. Very satisfying :)

@mike scott–people on housing lists (social or otherwise) cant just up sticks and move to another part of the country . thanks to some nonsensical rule anyone who is on the local authority housing list, social welfare ,rent allowance or r.a.s has to be able to provide ‘definitive proof ‘ of a ‘connection’ to an area before they would be considered for re-location to the area , those connections include family background (have you close family or family ties with the area?) educational connections (will you be taking up or have an educational post in the area?) or work related (do you have employment or definite offers of employment within the area, is your current employment relocating to that area?) .
i found this out when our landlord was thinking about selling the house we rent , the local authority had ‘no suitable’ accommodation in this area so we looked into relocating, the most stupid thing is that in the areas we looked at the rents were far lower than our present place , this would have saved the s/w upwards of 50 euro per week in rent subsidy, in fact at the time in one area the full cost of the rent was only 7 euro per week more than what we pay to the local council here ,that would have meant that we could have paid the rent in full ourselves and would not have needed rent allowance or assistance . if we had decided to do this we were told that we would be classed as’ making ourselves homeless’ and would therefore not be able to apply for local authority housing or any form of assistance for at least 12 months , so yet again its the system that is at fault ,not the people in it . relax or revoke these stupid rules and allow people the freedom to decide where they would like to live.

Provision lf these services isn’t contingent on any of that data. It is asked of then alright, but it’s not a deciding factor.

Many can’t just up sticks? What’s the alternative? Is homelessness a viable option?

@Eric Davies – yes and that argument suits many who, if these restrictions were removed – would still refuse to move out of Dublin.

@patlyndo, that is probably true, but then again if someone is born and brought up in an area and has family ties to that area why should they have to move just to suit a bunch of corrupt politicians, landlords and estate agents?. this whole ‘price rise’ thing is a scam , estate agents are forcing prices up in these areas by telling people “oh mrs murphy down the road got 160k for her house and its nowhere near as big/nice /modern as yours, you should look for 180k” then its off to the next house to tell them the same story but with the line that your selling for 180 and your house ids nowhere near as big/nice/modern as theirs so they should sell for 200k, its a con based on commission, the higher the sale price the more commission they receive, all this covert “theres 5 other people interested and we have 3 sealed bids over the asking price” is b/s and people are being forced into buying something they probably wont be able to afford in 12 months time, imagine the scenario if the ecb decides to put up interest rates? let alone the ‘extra’ interest our greedy state and semi-state owned banks will add to it . whats happening in Dublin today is the same as happened in london was 25 years ago , house prices mean that those born and reared in the city cant afford to buy, rents increasing meaning those on s/w or low incomes can no longer afford the rent, eventually they will have to move elsewhere and thats when the money people move in, the latter day ‘yuppies’ who ‘work in the financial sector or the banking/insurance sector’ the city center will become a hive of winebars and bistro’s and the iconic historical dubliner will be no more, there will be no markets (except financial ones) no traders, no ‘ howboutya’ decent dub’s left only toothy grinned ,pointy lower jawed people who say ” okeyyyy and yahhhh” a city of guchie rolex wearing morons, the very life and soul of Dublin would be lost and gone forever.

@ Eric, a couple of points:

People are free to live where they want to. But when you don’t have the income to provide your own accommodation where you want then you have to compromise.

There are working people, earning decent wages who can afford these properties – why should their choices be secondary?

What if I was born in Dalkey – do I have a right to a house there? If I can’t afford it, then do I have the right to receive RA (at a massive rate) and dig my heels in until a home is provided for me?

RE: Price rises – yes they are a scam, but don’t forget to add the buyers and sellers who are also colluding in it. You can blame the banks, media, EA’s and all the other vested interests – but this situation wouldn’t exist unless there were sellers and buyers.

Capital cities always have and always will command a premium, add into that the lack if investment outside Dublin and it compounds the problem.

This notion of affordable housing only being offered to a section of society who cannot afford it, is part of the problem, not part of the solution, as I said, take the quick profit element from property and prices would reduce.