If the country ever wakes up from its Covid induced coma, like Rip Van Winkle, it shall open its eyes to a radically altered society. First-time buyers or families looking to buy homes in Dublin, are up against investment funds who are bulk-buying whole housing developments in order to rent them out. This is a […]
Residential property prices have risen 3% across the Republic of Ireland in the year leading up to February, with homes outside of Dublin rising by almost 5%. According to the latest CSO figures, house prices in Dublin rose by 1.2%, while Dublin apartments rose by just under 1%. In south Dublin, costs increased by as […]
The latest work permits statistics from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment once again indicate that the importation of employees from outside of the European Union and European Economic Area continues at only a slightly reduced scale compared to other years. A further 1,046 permits were issued in March, a fall of just 176 […]
A Report being launched today by Green Party TD and Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development, Joe O’Brien, is to recommend a radical transformation of how local authorities assess and prioritise housing applications from non-Irish minorities and members of the Traveller community. The Minority Groups and Housing Services: Barriers […]
If you’ve never seen it, then bear with me, but one of the most striking scenes in David Lean’s dramatization of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago is when the title character arrives back in Moscow from the war, and discovers that the local reds have taken over his home and are busily stealing everything in it. Even […]
So who’s buying them? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ A couple would need to earn an annual income of at least €97,500 – on top of a hefty 10% deposit and other costs – to buy even the cheapest […]
Extraordinary. Usually, in Ireland, if you say that one way to reduce the demand for housing is to lower immigration, you’ll be dismissed as a rabid racist who’s peddling fake news. But in the Irish Independent this morning, no less an authority than the ESRI is out warning that a reduction in immigration, due to […]
In a country with ten thousand homeless people and a housing crisis, Dublin City Council rejected a plan to build 850 new homes in Coolock which would have cost taxpayers almost nothing. Ben Scallan reacts. #gript
In the midst of a housing crisis that dominated the General Election earlier this year, and in a country with – at last count – ten thousand homeless people, Dublin City Council was last night presented with a plan to build 850 new homes in Coolock. 250 of these would have been social housing. The […]
Absolute nonsense. But, probably popular nonsense. And it’s a Sinn Fein bill, so sheer, mindless, partisanship will mean that at least thirty per cent of the population will decide that it’s a great idea, just because it came from their team, even though it’s one of the most terrible ideas imaginable. Why? More on that […]
The recent passing of yet more “emergency” legislation under the Covid-19 exemption has led to some criticism with regard to the implications that it might have for those in danger of home repossession if their mortgage has been sold to one or other of the ubiquitous vulture funds. Many billions of such debt has already […]
Even with the current Covid panic, the issue of homelessness continues to exercise many. The current estimate stands at around 10,000 people homeless in Ireland, of whom almost half are in Dublin. The exact criteria for such a determination is somewhat vague, but even so, many people are finding it difficult to get a home […]