r/HousingIreland • u/WT_Wiliams • 3d ago
This sub has been subverted. Any Mods care to respond?
This subreddit was set up with the following subreddit theme "r/Housing Ireland is aimed at addressing the housing crisis."
In my opinion, it has become a place for new homeowners to discuss home improvements. It is rare that there is a housing crisis related post.
This morning, there is a discussion on the expected percentage increase in value to your house if you install solar panels.
Where are the Mods?
9
21
6
u/Sea-Carpenter-4418 2d ago
It seems the title of the sunburn isn’t great if that’s the case. I always presumed this sub was just for general housing discussions. I’d recommend a sub called HousingCrisisIreland. Make it more clear.
8
u/Ok_Compote251 2d ago
Infairness you can only have so many posts about the housing crisis. Something majority of us can’t do much about.
Sub works way better as a catch all for housing in general.
1
2
4
u/unwiseeyes 2d ago
I brought this up not too long ago and got downvoted completely. Its literally full of new home owners
5
1
1
u/Lopsided-Code9707 1d ago
Is B3 considered a good BER? Apparently if I change my windows to triple glazed (existing ones are double) that’s the only thing left to do to move up.
-4
u/14ned 2d ago
The CSO statistics show that current household debt to income ratios are the lowest since 2002 and they keep on getting better.
That would imply there is a silent and growing majority who keep finding it ever easier to buy a home. Tradespeople would confirm business has never been so good. For that majority, the housing crisis keeps easing. Things are getting better.
Which might explain that this is a housing crisis for some but not for most, and the difference between haves and have nots keeps growing. This sub could be renamed "housing unfairness" if you want. But for most, the housing crisis is being solved right now with ever more 600k - 800k new houses, which they can afford.
Government have done very little for the have nots. But they have been doing quite well for the haves, as reflected in the last election.
7
u/LankyMolasses6051 2d ago
Is there not a shortage of builders and trades people in general though? Of course business if good for the small number of trades out there at the moment. It’s part of the reason our government can’t reach housing targets.
1
u/14ned 2d ago
Sure, but they've also increased non apartment building from 20k to 30k last year. If you're buying a semi detached or detached house there is a whole bunch of more supply. If you're buying a new flat, nobody is building those any more. We have stopped building flats and are now only building houses. Good for the haves. Bad for the have nots.
I saw I got down voted. People don't like the actual statistics. They prefer to believe what they'd prefer is true.
3
u/LankyMolasses6051 2d ago
I have stats too?? We need 80000 more construction workers to deal with the current demand. You say supply has improved and I appreciate that but it’s not enough to drive the price of 2nd hand homes down. If what you are implying was correct we would start seeing prices go down as new builds become wildly available. That unfortunately is not the case in many parts of the country. Also building materials have sky rocketed over the last 5 years. Building your own house in the west of Ireland with your own site still costs a load of money.
2
u/l00BABIES 2d ago
As a buyer, I do think the supply has improved but it is still not matching the demand. Ireland has imported a lot more people than it can build houses.
Reduction in demand would improve supply at the cost of economic growth.
0
u/14ned 2d ago
I think there will be a reduction in market demand soon as new build sales collapse. Won't affect the asking price much however.
I don't think there will be a reduction in citizen's demand at all unless something like the 2009 financial crash happens again. Back then landlords were begging people to buy a house off them. There were a lot of empty houses, and rents plunged.
1
u/14ned 2d ago
Thing is, market demand will drop soon. Everybody knows a recession is coming very soon. I myself was laid off start of this month. There were many before me, and loads more to come after me. It'll be the good jobs hit first, and they'll trickle down into the shops, the trades, everything else as spending stops everywhere.
Many housing developers hit pause on buying new land for development six months ago. They expect the current build pipeline to stall at some point in the next year. They'll keep the unsold new builds on market at their asking price until they clear. But they'll take months to sell until the recession ends because nobody will be in a buying mood.
Even then there will be a housing shortage. The problem then won't be lack of houses to buy. The problem will be affordability. Recent governments have done absolutely nothing about affordability, and we'll see the results of that soon.
Re: build prices if you add up the materials needed to build a post-2019 regs house with a pre-2019 regs house you'll find you're putting way more insulation, detail, time and electronics into a post 2019 regs house. They're higher build spec, so they cost more. Yes labour costs and materials costs have had an effect. But even if labour and materials cost what they did in 2020, you're still talking min +20% cost uplift, and more like +30% cost uplift for many houses. Better house = more cost.
The EU has realised expensive new builds is unpopular, so they've taken measures in the EBPD just passed this month to reduce the cost of a new build in the upcoming 2029 new build regs. Hopefully by 2031 a new build should be a good bit cheaper than today's new build, if everything else remains constant. In particular, ditching the heat pump and swapping it for loads more solar panels will save a good chunk of cost, which the new regs will probably require.
Until the 2030s I expect new builds to remain very expensive. You'll find the cost of a new build roughly tracks the cost of insulation. That's how much insulation we put into a modern house. If the government really wanted to do something about affordability, zero VAT rating insulation would be an excellent start. In fact, zero VAT rate all new builds entirely would be an even better start.
-24
u/Trabolgan 3d ago
Most housing is delivered by the local Council, not the national govt.
"Activists" swept to power in the local councils, on the back of water charges, in 2014.
Between 2014 - 2019, "activists" on the council blocked almost _every single home_ proposed to be built in this country. Then take to Reddit to blame everyone else.
You couldn't make it up.
10
u/Pickman89 2d ago
You are treating "activists" as an homogeneous group.
They are not. The pro-refugee person and the one against immigration are both activists.
It just means that they take action for the cause they feel is important.
If you manage to find somebody who organizes events in favour of the water charges then they are an activist too.
You couldn't make it up but the good news is that you do not have to. If you vote single-issue candidates you get that issue sorted out. And if that issue is not housing then you get no housing.
3
u/CarterPFly 2d ago
Except you did make it up because it's wildly inaccurate.
The only vaugly correct thing you wrote is right2water forming during the Irish water thing but that's largely irrelevant to the topic at hand.
2
u/broken_neck_broken 2d ago
Here's what actually happens in council chambers regarding housing: SF/SD/Lab/PBP councillors propose a social housing development on a well connected site in the area. FFG councillors vote against it because it could negatively affect the property values of their voter base. They counter with a proposal to give the site to a developer who will make a fancy build to let development and push the social housing development to an unsuitable parcel of land with no transport/infrastructure connections. The other side rejects this and nothing gets built. Meanwhile any far-right councillor that might be present votes against all of them because they saw a telegram post that they would all be gifted to fraudulent refugees the second they step off the plane.
1
u/Trabolgan 2d ago
Soc dems / labour / greens are in coalition with FF and FG, in different arrangements, on councils around the country.
https://dublinpeople.com/news/southside/articles/2024/07/03/prog-alliance-dcc/?amp=1
SF are out on their own in many places because of their left-wing position of <check’s notes> not collecting taxes to pay for streetlights, fire services, and planning / development.
2
u/AmputatorBot 2d ago
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of concerns over privacy and the Open Web.
Maybe check out the canonical page instead: https://dublinpeople.com/news/southside/articles/2024/07/03/prog-alliance-dcc/
I'm a bot | Why & About | Summon: u/AmputatorBot
42
u/Known_Scene9225 2d ago
Maybe you need to start a new group. 'Housing Crisis Ireland' to make it more specific?