SOCIAL DEMOCRATS TD Rory Hearne has likened the “out of control” housing market to ‘The Hunger Games’ such is the fierce competition for homes.

The Dublin North-West deputy said that first time buyers face “absolutely unaffordable prices”, further questioning the transparency of the costs around trying to buy a house.

“It’s like the hunger games out there in terms of housing. I’m not using that in any facetious way. I’m saying this is the reality,” he
told reporters. 

Hearne that there was an issue around the “gazumping” of buyers when they are informed that they have been outbid, causing the price of a home to shoot up further. 

“Queues for renting, queues to try and buy, people being outbid, and for housing the issue of gazumping is still going on,” Hearne said.

“There are real issues around the opaqueness in terms of housing purchasing, and it is those first time buyers, people trying to buy a home, who are suffering, who are being made to pay absolutely unaffordable prices. 

He said this has reached a point where this is “not unusual” and placed blame at the government which he said has “not got to grips with” the system. 

Hearne, who penned a 2022 book about the housing crisis called Gaffs before he was elected to the Dáil, is a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage which will have its first meeting today.

First up on the agenda is local councils and their role in delivering housing. 

The City and County Managers Association – which represents local authority chiefs – will tell the Oireachtas Committee on Housing about the impediments that need addressing so councils can build more housing units.

The group will outline while local authorities have delivered 24,000 social housing units since 2022, Government ambitions to increase this to 12,000 units per annum are “simply not feasible without urgent structural support.”

TDs will be told that there is a need for investment funding, coordinated servicing of land by state bodies and increased staffing for councils to help meet the 12,000 target.

It is to hear that local authorities have delivered 24,000 social housing units since 2022, but that Government plans to increase this to 12,000 units per annum are “simply not feasible without urgent structural support.”