Housing Minister calls for ambitious aims and imaginative solutions to solve housing woes

Earlier this week Minister for Housing Daragh O’Brien published another commentary piece in the Irish Examiner entitled ‘Ambitious aims and imaginative solutions can solve housing woes’ about how we need to take ambitious steps in order to adequately address housing issues across Ireland, cautioning that if this is not done, the future generation will be left feeling “disenchanted and divided”.

Referring to the much-publicised US riot earlier this month on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, and to a subsequent opinion piece carried by the Irish Examiner, Minister O’Brien points out that the latter article claims ongoing problems within the housing industry could lead to similar political unrest here in Ireland. However, instead of proposing workable solutions to tackle this, the latter article simply criticises all proposed solutions put forward to date. The Minister goes on to say that it is of utmost importance that we use all the tools in our armour to solve Ireland’s persistent housing crisis and reaffirms his commitment to “pragmatism over ideology and delivery over dogmatism to boost housing supply and open up homeownership to a new generation”. Perfect is indeed the enemy of done.

The Minister also addressed concerns raised by Department of Public Expenditure officials about the new state equity scheme, clarifying that the scheme is set to be a short term boost to housing supply, with the objective of helping to bridge the affordability gap while we wait for longer term solutions to take effect. Speaking about the UK sector, Minister O’Brien references a scheme similar to the one due to be implemented in Ireland that reportedly increased housing prices by only 1 percent, while boosting supply by approximately 14 percent. This is a stated priority of the Minister and we understand that his Department is currently in the process of developing a fund that should increase the state affordable housing subsidy. Without knowing all of the details, it is difficult to critically assess the likely efficacy of this scheme. Comparisons with the UK scheme are, arguably, not helpful as the scheme there has been quite heavily criticised by both the private industry and by first time home buyers. Yet, something needs to be done to address lack of affordability in the market. The hallmark of a functioning city is that the people who contribute to it can afford to live it in. By that measure, Dublin falls short (as does London and, by some measures, Paris). When working people cannot afford to buy a standard home within proximity to where they are working, that housing market is failing a key test.

This is not just an Irish problem. For most developed countries, research shows that millennials are financially worse off than their parents were at the same age. Millennials are thought to be a more creatively-diverse generation and perhaps better educated, however, they are also bound to face the “bleakest economic prospects”of any generation in recent history. In fact, Government surveys currently show that the average age of buying a first home in Ireland today is 35 years, whereas in 1991 it was 26 years.

According to the Minister, Ireland has managed to avoid the political uproar that “generated the chaos of Brexit, a profoundly fragmented European Parliament or the political maelstrom of the Trump administration in the US”, however, he stressed that this could change if a back seat approach is taken to solving this crisis and the rapid decline in home ownership numbers in Ireland continues to fall below the EU average. Speaking about prospects for 2021, Minister O’Brien had previously stated that  that this year’s housing budget is one of the biggest in history for a reason, that is, to help young people to get a foot on the property ladder. Again, this is welcome  – in theory. As always, the devil is in the details and we look forward to much greater detail on these housing ambitions.