Lol sorry nightsticks should read knightsbridge ..pre emptive texting novice

The rent is so high because almost half of rental properties are subsidized by rent allowance. Most landlords are regular people now struggling to pay their mortgages. Government subsidises them by paying majority of the rent of unemployed and low-earning.

If it weren’t for rent allowance, rent would have dropped significantly, so would property prices as many rental homeowners would have gone bankrupt. This would be a hit for the banks.

In the end, the rent is too damn high because the government subsidizes the banks by keeping it high, at the expense of
a. taxpayer who pays for the sibsidies
b. non-subsidized tenants

Not sure how accurate your figures are about that, but I can assure you that the main reason rents have gone through the roof is the inability of anyone to get a mortgage.

The irony being that the rent being paid is higher that the potential mortgage cost of most properties (at current market rates)

If anything points to the failure of the government to get banks lending, it is that fact alone.

I read somewhere last week* that in South County Dublin, mortgage payments on a standard 3/4 bedroom semi-d are currently cheaper than renting.

Domestic rents are set by market supply and demand. As contracts in Ireland are very short term ( 1 year), what you generally see is the real price. Rent allowance has little or no effect. I would love to know where the figure of 50% of rental properties being rent allowance ones comes from.

*Think it may have been in the Sunday Times business section.

I think Feeds got his info from a friend of his who knows a guy….

Not sure why you were red thumbed, I can only assume it’s because you admitted to reading the Sunday Times instead of the Business Post!

Renting is much more acceptable in other jurisdictions but there is an element of snobbery in Irish society, tied in with the fact the government pays billions in rental subsidy, even though those properties have halved in value yet subsidies haven’t decreased as this would be detrimental for developer/landlords so hey my rent is the same as during the tiger era. Maybe there is very little difference in this government and the last except circumstances and the citizens continue paying for the sins of the wealthy,,,,,,,,,, a twenty year levy on all our insurances to fix up the Quinn Insurance mess,,,pension levies,usc’s, home tax to be followed ( maybe) by property tax etc etc

Rent allowance subsidies have been cut everywhere.

I think it has more to do with the fact that we are a much more ‘house with a back garden’ type society than our European counterparts where apartment living is the norm. I would wager that home ownership is more prevalent in those parts of Europe where houses are more prevalent.

There is also the fact that Irish people are perhaps more reluctant to pay someone else’s mortgage. The cost of a 20 year mortgage and rent in Ireland have historically been quite close. Sometimes one is more expensive than the other; however, after 20 years you don’t have to pay the mortgage any more. Seems like a no brainer to me.

Renting is much more acceptable in other jurisdictions due to the longer terms for renting.
Who wants to try and rear a family when the landlord can on a whim make you move.

I think you might be right about an apartment complex Jack, I wonder if there is any difference in a housing estate.

Some of the Regen families don’t want to move back to those estates now, as I assume their quality of life has improved since such social housing estates

Limerick has been destroyed with social housing. It is extremely unfair and unjust to house alcoholics and junkies beside law abiding decent tax paying people.

Plus allot of the people in them, don’t treat it as a safety net, but a hammock

Comment of the decade right there. Give yourself a pat on the back. You and many more like you are proof that Ireland is disappearing up its own arse.

I’ve been living in Berlin for the past year or so and it’s really interesting to compare the attitudes of people here to those at home in regard housing. My girlfriends mom and step dad work in very well paid jobs and could easily afford to buy their own home and pay a sizeable mortgage (even by extortionate Irish standards). Yet they choose to rent.

They’ve been renting their current apartment for almost 20 years and by now it’s only costing them around €350 a month. €350 a month, in a nice quiet neighbourhood, a minutes walk from the nearest bus stop and train station, in a European capital city…

They have a good quality of life and use their earnings on things that make them happy – like going on holiday a few times a year and all that sort of stuff. And that really sums up the attitude of most people on the continent. They would prefer to avoid any unnecessary debts or financial burden and focus more on their own well-being rather than spending their days moaning about bankers and bondholders.

That comment was aimed at Creamy Hamstrings btw. It’s funny though to see a much dispised troll getting so many green thumbs!

Your anger is a little misplaced there Kevin, I think you’re confusing social housing with rented accommodation.

Yes, historically, our European counterparts tend to rent more than we do (especially in places like Paris, Berlin etc) but i’m guessing your girlfriend’s mum and dad wouldn’t be as comfortable living in certain estates in North Dublin, Limerick or Cork.

Estates with burnt out cars generally aren;t classed as nice quiet neighbourhoods.

I’ve lived on a council estate for nearly 30 years, And from what I’ve observed is that its the people that make an area.
There were some good people on my council estate but what I came to realise was that it was just a dumping ground for the dregs of society ruining it for the decent people trying to get on in life.

I lived in a council house in London in a leafy suburb close to underground and bus routes, 2 milies from the west end. and city My dad still lives there, its a nice neighbourhood,

I feel really sorry for the people that paid money for houses and now have to live in what can only be described as council estates because all the investment buyers have them rented to the social. I’m not having a go at people from council estates but if your going to pay a lot of money for a house you expect not to have to put up with all the problems that come with a coucil estate.

I agree as a mother of 5 kids , yes they are noisy during the day (with the weather we been having this summer) but are asleep and quite most evening by 10pm. Unlike some around me who (young mothers too) , have house parties most weekends and are playing music to the max as well as so called singing out the back up to 4am in the morning with others! I gave up complaining as it was not worth the effort but when I cannot sleep and up around 7am I feel they have no respect for others who need a good night sleep and have to take care of their families the follow day. Makes me so cranky the following day, I suffer, my kids suffer!

Sarah I suggest you make an official written complaint to your local area estate manager (all social housing estates have one). and you continue to do so until something is done about the situation. Your complaint will be treated confidentially and your identity will be legally protected and will NEVER be given or made available to anybody.

Good point its a pity the minority tarnishes everybody !

America.

There are plenty ‘respectable’ white collar Skangers living in leafy suburbia who have done infinately more damage to society than those from council estates.The bottom line is that many of the the middle classes
regard themselves as being somehow superior to those who live in council estates.Rigid Victorian Class Structure is alive and well and living in the so-called Republic of Ireland.

Oh aye, there’s no such thing as a classless society. People just replace class in other ways.

It might be worth keeping a list of all those landlords who don`t except rent allowance.I suspect that a fair portion of them might be dodging tax and don`t want to come to the attention of officialdom.

Nail and hammer your spot on

As someone who currently lives in Ballymun, I have to say I find this snobbery nauseating. Yes, there is a bad element here, but there’s also a lot of people who live here that are hard working, law abiding and decent neighbours. A lot of the kids that live here aren’t causing trouble, and are working towards going to college or getting a decent job. To tar everyone with the brush that you have, John, is not fair. Spend a week out here talking to the people, getting to know the neighbourhood, and THEN come back with your opinions.

Trisha.. Have a quick look through my comment again and you’ll realise I’m certainly not tarring everyone with the same brush. I’m simply pointing out the reality that you are far more likely to encounter undesirable people in social housing projects, This is a fact! I know many decent people living in council estates, hard working people who would give their right hand to escape chaos and carnage of cars been set alight, post men/guards/fire fighters been attacked.

I only became a single mother two years ago but was given social house as a family unit when ex was working hard , than worked two jobs , But he has left and am raising the kids in OUR HOME. I am a good person who wishes to work but with 5 kids all still primary level, I would find it hard to afford childcare/ after-school clubs as rent will increase if I work a minimum paying job . I have to wait till kids are old enough to come home after school on their own. I have finished school, and am qualified in IT and Graphic design

I would imagine that one would find the most undesirable people in Irish society living in areas such as Drumcondra, Howth, D4, Offally and Mayo.

Not sure it’s anything to do with the land league and more to do with an aspiration to ” bettering ourselves” that we all hold. Having been reared in a corporation estate ( which was considered a step above the flats) home ownership was a way of showing that you had arrived. Sociological studies of class show the gradual climb of the poorer classes from tenement to suburb and for some, an aspiration to own the detached house on a plot of land. Mixing private and social housing is seen by those who have worked to get a mortgage as giving something to someone who hadn’t earned it, There is also the perception that those given a property for rent or at a cheaper price won’t appreciate it and will ruin the common areas. Having negotiated the piss scented stairwells of many a flat complex it’s easy to see the objection. On the other hand banks made it possible for anybody to buy a property, they were never interested in class just money, so the guarantee of middle class respectable neighbours evaporated somewhat in the boom. We have all lived through an era of entitlement, no matter what strata of society we come from. Perhaps austerity will teach us all the value of community rather than the value of property .

Good points.

The desire for your own land in rural areas is definitely a cultural phenomenon that was galvanised during the Land War. I agree that the urban working-class see property as climbing the social ladder.

Infested?? you make it sound like a plague to have social housing in an area. It’s that very same point of view that many posters seem to have which has caused Irish Society to be so stratified with an “us and them” attitude.

That remark says a lot about you Lauren.

Good grief….you sound like an obnoxious monster