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HOMELESS CHARITIES HAVE said that this week’s housing report from the Central Statistics Office underlines the scale of Ireland’s housing crisis.
The CSO’s special profile on housing, based on Census 2016, found that the country increased its housing supply by just 0.4% in the five-year period of 2011 to 2016.
This is in stark contrast to the change in Ireland’s housing stock during the peak of the Celtic Tiger between 2002 and 2006, when the number of units grew by 21.2%.
Ireland’s population grew by 173,613 between 2011 and 2016. The country’s overall population grew by 322,645 between 2002 and 2006.
This chart encapsulates the disparity in the growth in housing stock between the two time periods:
Housing Minister Simon Coveney has said the CSO findings confirm the need to focus on housing supply, and reiterated that it is a priority for the government.
The housing stock figures present a “stark story,” Coveney told RTÉ radio on Thursday.
Coveney launched the government’s ambitious Rebuilding Ireland plan last summer – pledging, amongst other priorities, to spend over €5 billion on social housing over five years.
In a recent statement on the housing supply situation, Coveney said his department had already made a number of changes to the planning system to speed up applications.
Commencement Notices in the 12 months to January 2017 were up 44% year on year, he said, while planning permissions were up by around 20% by the end of 2016.
Focus Ireland said this week’s findings show that despite some well-meaning policies being developed by government, they are clearly not tough enough to solve the housing and homelessness crisis.
Niamh Randall of the Simon Communities said the picture painted by the CSO report was a troubling one.
“A supply of decent, affordable homes will prevent more people from becoming homeless and ensure that people can leave homelessness behind,” Randall said.
“We very much welcome that Minister Simon Coveney and the government have acknowledged that housing and homelessness are interconnected and, through ‘Rebuilding Ireland’, have produced a plan that looks at these areas together for the first time.
However, the government’s plan is moving far too slowly. In the absence of sufficient supply of social housing, the private sector is not capable of delivering the housing needed to respond given the sheer scale of the problem.
The numbers of people pushed into homelessness and housing insecurity continues to rise.
You can view the full housing report on the CSO website.
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For how long do we have to listen to the minister and government admit there is a problem and it needs to be addressed …. and yet they still don’t get the finger out and do what they are paid very well to do
@Tommy Byrne: I wonder if our government made a significant addition to the increased population..?
@Tommy Byrne: The government will not change the situation because this is their economic policy. Severely restricting the number of homes ensures rapid inflation in valuations. The banks look better and rising prices make it more attractive to developers who want to maximise their profit margins. The fact that thousands of people are made homeless is a price they are happy to pay. The poor and disabled in our society have not been just forgotten, they’ve been cast aside and treated as worthless. The squeezed middle continue to be bled dry while the rich and well off continue enjoy the recovery engineered for them by FG/FF/LAB. The endapendents happily support them in their march to the biggest gap that’s ever existed between the have and have nots.
@Tommy Byrne: such as what?
@James Gorman: such as sort the problem. They have done enough talking about it now at this stage… the rental market is a total mess and the only reason Greedy landlords are getting away with it is a lack of social housing for people… how many vacant houses and buildings are still left in this country?? You know the ones the government seem keen to give away for a song to some foreign investors.
@Tommy Byrne: in other words you haven’t any ideas either.
@Tommy Byrne: i dont know why you claim landlords are “greedy landlords” ive seen the way a landlord is taxed the only real winner in a rented accomidation is the taxman…. And im fairly impartial as i have no rental properties but to randomly class all landlords.as greedy is both illlogical and pointlees
@James Gorman: I think I answered your question when I asked how many house lie idle in this country… more than enough to house the back log of people is the answer.. but the people have to suffer because those in power have no interest in solving the crisis they are very capable of solving
@Tommy Byrne: no you didnt. Thats a statement of fact – not a sokution.
There’s an agenda here by the hard left. The real problem in this country is the lack of private residential accomodation for working people. The hard left want to piggy back off that to increase the chances of getting a free house with a garden in the city centre for themselves. No-one is fooled.
@Fred Jensen: working people are finding private residential accommodation increasingly unaffordable even when on decent incomes. Rents are too high in Dublin and the main urban areas. Tenants rights are too limited.
The private sector is proven not to be a solution.
@Tony Daly:
Only because the inner city councillors won’t allow tall apartment building which would make private accommodation viable and more affordable.
@Tony Daly:. I would counter that it is the public services that have been shown to not be working. Private landlords are taking their investment and using it for Airbnb, leaving units unoccupied or leaving completely. Wonder why? Costs are too high (taxes), government is restricting what people can earn from their assets and non-paying or anti-social tenants take many months and significant expense for landlords to deal with. All of this is government policy and all within the control of government to change.
while there is much talk of greedy landlords it is the government who make most from any tenancy. Up to 52% of the rent goes back to the govt in taxes. They do nothing for it, leave the risk with the private sector, cream off enormous profits and complain that there is a crisis.
Damned if you and damned if you don’t. Either the Banks start lending or Govt start funding building schemes.
However Banks won’t lend and Govt doesn’t have the funds. Wonder how many houses could have been built with the ADDITIONAL €500M now coming out of general taxation, going into the water infrastructure? A victory indeed LLA.
@MK76:
Imagine how many houses could have been built with the money used to set up a billing company..or the amount of houses that the second hand not fit for purpose meters could have built..imagine..indeed
@Kieran OKeeffe: Definitely, plenty of money for houses if that abomination of Irish Water wasn’t set up alright.
@Dave Murray @Kieran OKeeffe: imagine how many houses could be built if we had invested properly in our water infrastructure when we had proper tax returns or the banks and financial regulator were lending responsibility or the government departments managed the building regulations properly and people weren’t forced to pay millions to correct building faults for fear of losing their homes.
@MK76: whos going to pay for water if there in no customers…?
How many could be made available by nama if managed properly or if care had been taking at project eagle sale, only a few billion. But whats that, a flying pig distraction. Ha ha forget everything.
@MK76: Can you imagine what that 3.5 Billion pumped into IW could have done to transform the housing situation.
But what would happen to the mortgage to rent agenda.
How come the government interfering in the marketplace didn’t miraculously solve all our housing problems?
Private market solutions won’t address public supply.
@Tony Daly: Yes, having more houses will do nothing about our lack of housing and it’s Reaganite witchcraft to say so
Would it have anything to do with the majority of TDs being landlords in the private sector?
@John Murray: blasphemy.
@Dave Murray: No infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me
Why does the Irish government have to screw those buying a house where they have to pay €30000 VAT on the average house. No VAT In charged in Europe.
Found a place for 200k in a okish area. Jumped to 240k in 24hours.
Its car crash tv, watching house prices get out of control, while the government sit on their hands.
Right now we urgently need;
1. Vacant land owners in residential zoned areas to be penalized for not developing
2. Incentives and options for singles/childless couples in 3/4 bed houses to trade down
3. Incentives for developers to build
4. Social housing
But instead they add fuel to the fire with first time buyer schemes.
Absolutely moronic policy making, the cynic in me can’t help thinking they are getting back handers from developers speculating on land prices…
Nothing of substance will change except an increase in the interference with the housing sector by the state.
More interference with property rights, taxes and planning will further exacerbate the construction of dwellings causing a continuous surge in selling prices.
Landlords, who have been rendered non-profit by state interference, will use the property price increases to exit the rental market just as soon as they are no longer in negative equity.
The largest problem with housing and rental in Ireland is the state.
With everyone looking to the state to “do something”, the manipulation of the housing sector will continue with the state being the actual problem rather than being the solution.
The government think house building is a cash cow to be flogged, then their all surprised when none are built!!! get rid of massive one off charges and make homes affordable for ordinary people in ordinary jobs, people can pay for the services used over the lifetime of the housing (property tax) instead of huge one off up front charges that are making homes unaffordable and unbuilt
Gotta just hope for another recession to thin out the population
The gov could just pear the problem down to the bear minimum, just build houses and sell them off and make sure the profits for each house cover that property tax for a few years, but Coveney and the gov can’t even do this right. This just shows how grossly incompetent, unqualified and ineffective the current gov is.
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