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WE ALL KNOW that this government is a big fan of supporting developers – but I have to confess to being surprised by the extent of the generosity they are showing to their favourite demographic in their latest policy wheeze.
Private developers, those captains of industry who are supposed to be inveterate risk-takers, are being given a State handout. A large one. With no strings attached. In fact, all the government wants them to do is take the money – up to €144,000 per apartment they build – and run straight to the bank.
In return, the State will get precisely nothing. There will be no reduction in the cost of the apartments and no commitment that they will be affordable for ordinary workers. In fact, those hoping to eventually purchase a two-bed apartment will need incomes of more than €100,000.
Pushing the prices
In effect, the government has proudly announced the creation of an Unaffordable Housing Scheme – and is rewarding developers for constructing apartments that they, apparently, can’t afford to build but that the State is happy to heavily subsidise.
Meanwhile, buyers desperate for a property will be rewarded by having to fork out for an overpriced apartment in the knowledge that their own government has diligently worked to keep prices, and their mortgages, artificially high.
The scheme is such bad value, and so bizarre, that I decided to ask the Taoiseach a few questions about it in the Dáil. I wanted to know if there had been any independent analysis of the policy; if there was any other country anywhere on the planet that had done something like this or if any independent expert had endorsed the scheme. He gave me no answers and instead spoke in general terms about the importance of supply.
The supply issue
Supply is critically important. We all acknowledge that. But so is value for money – for both the taxpayer and house hunters. How can the government justify gifting up to €144,000 per apartment to private developers – when it could instead buy out these sites at a fraction of this cost to ensure the delivery of homes that are sold at prices that people can afford.
Finance costs, for State-backed projects, are much lower than those available to private developers and this could be harnessed to ensure these planning permissions are built out.
The State seems incapable of securing value for money. When it’s not bailing out developers to the tune of up to €144,000 per apartment; it’s leasing social housing from them for up 30 years and locking in exorbitant rents for decades.
For anyone keeping count, this is the third time in seven years that we have been told that apartment building is unviable for developers. In 2015, former Housing Minister, and Labour leader, Alan Kelly announced that he was reducing standards for apartments. Mr Kelly said people needed to “get real” as he slashed the minimum size of studio apartments by a whopping 27pc.
Why did people need to “get real”? According to Mr Kelly, apartment sizes had to be cut to make it profitable for developers because there was “no point in having standards in place if nobody is going to build them”. However, Mr Kelly promised that his changes would make apartment building affordable for purchasers. We all know how that turned out.
Next up, in 2018 former Fine Gael Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy slashed standards for apartment buildings even further. Mr Murphy introduced lower standards for build-to-rent developments in order to – you guessed it – make them more affordable and boost supply.
Prevalence of build-to-rent
Build-to-rent developments are cheaper for developers to construct as the minimum size of apartments was again slashed; the requirement to mix apartment sizes was removed leading to a proliferation of huge developments of tiny studios and one-beds, and there is no requirement for balconies or outside space.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, in Dublin City, in particular, developers are now building build-to-rent developments at the exclusion of almost everything else. Dublin City Council recently revealed that 82pc of the planning permissions granted or applied for in 2020 were build-to-rent. That is 82pc within two years of standards being slashed.
Of course, this leaves a huge problem for people who would like to actually buy a house or an apartment in Dublin – because most of what is now in the pipeline will not be available to buy. The only option, for an increasing number of people, is to rent these low-standard apartments at a premium rent in perpetuity.
Is there anyone in government who has any idea of what they are trying to accomplish with their housing policy? Because, from the outside at least, it looks as if the overriding priority is fuelling house price inflation in a desperate attempt to attract more developers, looking for bumper returns, into the market.
We saw how that policy objective turned out during the Celtic Tiger years. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t good. One would have hoped that Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien would have learned lessons from the last time his party crashed the property market. Apparently not.
Cian O’Callaghan TD is the Social Democrats’ spokesperson for Housing.
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They should really teach kids about giant hogweed in schools. It is truly horrific stuff.
@Chop Chop: Before some smartarse says it, I’m not saying there’s hogweed IN the schools. It was poor phrasing on my part. It’s late.
@Chop Chop: your handle means I’ll take u very seriously on anything u have to say on this topic
@Danny O’Mahony: U da man danny
@Danny O’Mahony: Never mind the handle, you should see the couple of scars on my leg.
@Danny O’Mahony: Never mind the handle, you should see the couple of scars on my leg.
@Chop Chop: You got lucky! I know people that required surgery to remove scaring!
If the council ask for the publics help there would be 1000s of volunteers to help with this problem. National parks & wildlife could recruit secondary school teenagers as well. Maybe even the work shy could be deployed, they can earn their money by helping the environment.
@Dean Carroll: Teenagers handling poison and dangerous equipment, yup that’s a good solution. I’d even be wary of letting adults volunteers near that stuff.
@Jason Walsh: what about a wood saw and gloves? No chemicals. Cut down Laurel, Rhododendron. Manually weed etc.
Climate change promotions opportunity missed by the journal Climate cultists.
@087 bed Has nothing to do with Climate Change you nonce. knotweed was introduced by some clown Lord, 100s of years ago in the UK to run along train-lines, the morons assumed it would be grand, the root structure is highly invasive. Our street in London had some and rendered the nearby houses unsellable/unliveable… Apparently in its native country’s there’s a particular grub that eats the root and controls the spread, that bug doesn’t survive here. Was very surprised to see it here when we returned, as it wasn’t around when I was a kid. You wont get a mortgage if these weeds are anywhere near.
@087 bed: You and the other that liked your post have no idea what the article is about. Read it, google it and learn the real problems that are happening all over the country and the damage it does.
@Thesaltyurchin: It was brought in by fancy gardeners and escaped same as the Hogweed. It escaped from the Botanical Gardens!
@Gary Kearney: Apologies, it was a “Sir” rather than a lord. “The invasive plant Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) was introduced to the UK by Sir Robert Fortune. He brought it to Britain in 1850s from Japan, where it was originally native”
I see in Canada some areas let loose a herd of goats and sometimes herds of sheep who devour these type of weeds that are harmful, should Ireland look at this as a solution?
@Ned: I’ve seen goats grazing council land in the Netherlands. This country has so many sheep too and they’re just standing around doing nothing
@Ned: But then someone can’t get rich off govt contracts!!!….. Maybe set the goats up with bank accounts and then put them to work at the expense of the taxpayer. The money is there to be thrown away as per usual!
@Ned: It’s the roots are the problem, and they multiply in size when the plants are cut.
@Darth O’Leary: Are they not grazing like normal sheep or do they stand and stare ?
@Lulu: let’s tap into the power of sheep is all I’m saying. Might make for less lean chop but we could cut down on the glyphosate
As you drive around take note of the trees, hedges and historical buildings being swallowed up by ivy. Everything that’s growing being choked with the stuff.
Good journalism Big problem here round my patch
Argument can me made its natural evolution
All plants and all successful species increase their range over time
Homo Sapiens being the prime example
Heartbreaking to see native species disappearing all the same
Ash being a tragic example
But that’s mother nature
99% of all lifeforms that have ever existed are extinct
As Frank Sinatra famously put it
That’s life
@Danny O’Mahony: Watch out, it will destroy any structure nearby, soon enough the banks will pulling back from investing in mortgages where this could happen.
Japanese knot weed is beloved by bee keepers for its late flowers. All the plants in Ireland are female I’m and it cannot seed here. It actually spreads quite slowly. It’s related to rhubarb and the young shoots can be used the same way in tarts and desserts (and as a veg with your dinner if you’re Dutch). Articles like this never mention that. Livestock, especially goats, love it. I had it on a property a few years ago in an area I was planting trees on, and after a few years it was shaded out.
Fuscia is a major invasive plant, but no one mentions it, cos it’s pretty.
@Seosamh mac Cárthaigh: The fact that if disturbed small sections of it, as little as 0.7g, can re-grow into a new plant is the problem. It doesn’t need to go to seed to spread.
Cork is heavily affected. The biggest culprit for spreading knotweed has been the flail verge trimmers which spread the mown plant matter extensively along roadside for miles. This fact was only detected in recent times but the damage had been done. “Do not mow” signs are erected by councils. As happens every year on the Cork-Kinsale road the contractors ignore the signs and mow away. No checking by City Council. How can you win with such people in charge?
Not surprised with Louth Co Co position on the league table. Totally ineffective. Wipe their hands totally on eradication of knotweed…… Speaking from experience!!!
We humans are the biggest invasive species of all time! I’m just putting it out there!
A supermarket chain was selling rhododendron plants last summer.
@Pork Hunt: You can buy horticultural varieties at any garden centre. The article is talking about a specific species, that is a problem. The garden stuff is fine.
Add to this the malicious spreading of Japanese Knotweed onto proposed development sites to dissuade development of the land. It’s not a conspiracy theory either.
Incursio bona?
What about the non-native trees escaping from forestry plantations around ireland as well???
Japanese Lilac is another invasive species that does massive damage.
The butterfly tree as I knew it as a child. They love it. It chews up building however! It is extremly difficult to kill as grows very fast as well.
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