Low Unemployment Rate not Translating to Better Living Standards

Ireland’s unemployment rate has reached all-time lows and people are not able to experience the benefits. Rising house prices are increasing faster than the raise in wages causing bad living standards for many people. The Central Statistics Office posted an unemployment rate at 4.5% last month. Despite this low number, ICTU President Sheila Nunan is still worried about different groups of people that are affected. She mentioned additional problems like youth joblessness, skills shortages, and low employment levels for women as factors that need to be addressed.

Rent has risen approximately 8% in the last year while wage hikes have averaged about 3% over the same period. Many people are calling for wage hikes to be implemented to allow people to afford rising costs in the housing markets. Rent costs contribute to more than half of minimum living costs in Dublin.

The living wage refers to the wage that people need to earn to be able to afford the minimum basket of goods and services. Few employees have used that number as the starting salary for their employees and instead …

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Affordable Rental Properties are Hard to Come by

Rental properties have provided the people of Ireland different options when it comes to living situations. People that cannot secure mortgages for various reasons and therefore are unable to buy a home look into the rental market.

A new Simon Communities Study has found that over 90% of homes available for rent within Ireland are not affordable for people with state housing benefits. The study indicates that the government needs to monitor and strictly enforce rent pressure zones, including the 19 new zones announced today.

The most recent publication of the Locked Out of the Market report found that approximately 8% of properties available on the market to rent were within the housing assistance payment limits. That percentage is drastically smaller compared to the percentage of the population that is using housing assistant payments.

The study found some alarming information that the government needs to take under consideration. Only one property was found available to rent within the Rent Supplement or HAP limits across all of the study areas for a single person. Additionally, only two unites were available within …

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MyHome.ie Report Broken Down

Dublin’s housing market is showing a trend that has not been seen since 2013 and is not consistent with the rest of Ireland. MyHome.ie concluded that the annual asking price inflation has declined 2.4% nationally in the 2nd quarter of 2019. The annual asking price inflation is at its lowest level in five years. When solely concentrating on Dublin, they fell .6 % which marked the first time Dublin has been negative since 2013 with respect to asking price inflation. Asking prices are continually growing, but at smaller rates than historically. Nationally asking prices increase by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter this year. Dublin’s asking prices grew slimly at .5% which marks the weakest 2nd quarter gain since 2013.

The report also found that the median asking prices for new sales grew by 5,000 euros to 276,000 euros and Dublin grew by 2,000 to 382,000 euros. Experts use newly-listed properties as a reliable indicator into predicting future price movements. Conall MacCoille who authored the report and is the chief economist at Davy, commented on falling prices causing much fear towards …

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Engineers Ireland Reports on Ireland’s Infrastructure

Engineers Ireland published a report on the condition of Irish Housing and its infrastructures. The findings indicated a lot of trouble down the road if steps were not taken. 52% of the engineers that were polled gave Ireland’s infrastructure a D rating and cited a concern and need for immediate action. Engineers Ireland predicts that over 600,000 people in Ireland are living in unsuitable houses with conditions that include; leaks or damp structure and rotting.

To put into words the current crisis that Ireland is facing, Director general for Engineer Islands, Caroline Spillane said, “We, like many others, are seriously concerned about Ireland’s housing. Immediate actions are needed to overcome challenges in the capacity, condition, and connectivity of our housing stock.” The government has created different projects and organizations to address these issues, but statistical evidence is showing that not enough improvements are being made. Engineers Ireland provides many more solutions to addressing the outdated infrastructure in Ireland.

The first advice that is offered is “focus on retrofitting Ireland’s existing housing stock.” The government has pledged to upgrade 500,000 homes …

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Institutional Investors Hurting First-Time Buyers

Big time investors in the housing market are affecting first time buyers and their ability to purchase homes. Large scale investors are buying lots of hundreds of houses at a time and renovating them and re-selling them for profit. Home buyers are feeling the pressure and are unable to find homes in their price range. Fianna Fáil is calling on the current government to investigate the current tax incentives for investors and believes that could be a way to make significant changes.

The Department of Finance has agreed to do a review on how much institutional investors pay in taxes. However, Department of Finance has already begun releasing statements defending their current stance on taxes. They acknowledged that institutional investors only make up a small proportion of the housing market. A small proportion still can affect hundreds to thousands of people. According to Savills Estate Agents, approximately 3,000 properties were purchased in blocks by institutional investors last year. Many homebuyers searching for homes contribute large investment funds to increasing difficulty in getting a house.

Nicola McCann and her partner from …

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Fine Gael’s Tax Regime Under Scrutiny

Ireland is known throughout the world of having a very low corporate tax rate, which draws in many multinational companies. In addition, foreign property investment funds are also paying very low taxes and are walking away with massive profits. Many believe this is hurting the average taxpayer and are calling for an increase on taxes to foreign investors.

A main critique to this is the current housing shortage and how it may encourage less houses being built. However, this fund is buying large chunks of land and holding it to draw prices up and then selling these properties at premium prices. The housing shortage is due to the lack of affordable housing, not high-end luxury houses. Pearse Doherty, finance spokesperson, has been raising this issue publicly after he learned that only approximately 13 million Euros were collected on taxed profits out of the hundreds of millions that the companies earn. One of the tax loopholes that companies use is the Fine Gael’s tax regime. These loopholes allow them to avoid cooperation taxes on rental income and tax on gains if …

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Medici Living Group Targeting Dublin for Co-Living Scheme

Eoghan Murphy’s amendment to allow for co-living has drawn a lot of attention from international developers. It has opened the door for cheaper complexes to be built in and around Dublin.

Germany’s Medici Living Group, known as one of the biggest co-living providers internationally, proposed a plan to bring more than 5,000 new beds to Dublin. Luxembourg-based, Corestate Capital, is backing Medici Living Group approximately 1 billion Euros for building co-living accommodations throughout Europe.

A statement regarding why Medici Living Group wants to expand to Ireland, states, “As Ireland is a growing, forward-looking country with a tech hub, we can see our members and future members would be interested in living there.” In addition, they are targeting easy-to-access, high standard affordable accommodation in the city center, which is hard to currently get.

Specific locations that Medici is targeting within Ireland includes; Rathmines, College Green, Ballsbridge, Liberties, North Wall, Portobello, and the Docklands.

A spokesperson for Medici Living Group stated, “As Ireland is a growing, dynamic, forward-looking and innovative country with a tech hub (Dublin) and at the centre of Europe, …

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Renting vs. Buying

A current issue revolving around Irish news is whether to increase the supply of rental or property ownership. It is well known that there is a shortage in properties available, but just trying to produce as many properties as possible is not the solution. Careful review of the issue needs to take place by the government and necessary legislation would follow. Some factors to consider include; land zoning, shared ownership purchase models, tax breaks for EU nationals arriving for construction work, reduced CGT for empty sites, tax reduction for citizens downsizing, and help-to-buy schemes.

First time home buyers are having trouble purchasing homes due to the increasing purchase prices. It is universally agreed upon that more properties need to be available. According to an independent article, 2500 houses that were built in the first three months have not been sold yet. In addition, this is driving up decisions. That coupled with difficult mortgage banking is challenging middle- and lower-class citizens to find accommodation. These statements emphasize the lack of availability and ease for purchasing affordable housing.

Build-to-rent schemes have the …

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Is Long-Term Renting Sustainable?

Lifelong renting is becoming increasingly popular within Ireland’s largest cities. Influential Cork developer, Michael O’Flynn, talked about instances when he heard of people suggesting that up to 50% of houses should be rented. O’Flynn heavily disagrees with this statement and suggests that ideas such as economic and pension polices should be reviewed.

O’Flynn most recently addressed this issue during his discussion at the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV). He set out to prove that retirees could not sustain a long period of renting properties and instead should have a house paid off to retire in. He asked the audience, “There are currently five workers for every pensioner, but the projection is for this to drop to two workers for every retiree by 2050. Have we considered how that will impact on pension income?” The renting model is not affordable for many classes of people and can cause severe economic troubles down the road when savings begin to dry up. Renting can be a great alternative for people moving to new areas or students and young adults in the …

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UN Sent Irish Government a Letter on Housing Crisis

The Irish government received a letter in March from the UN rapporteur, Leilani Farha, stating that, “housing in Ireland is moderately unaffordable.” The UN was using this letter as a wakeup call to the Irish government and made some very serious allegations. One of the allegations that the letter made was, “house prices are now approaching levels last seen at the height of the property bubble.” This statement relives a terrible time in the history of Ireland. The Irish government responded by saying that average households only spend one-fifth of their income on housing costs but acknowledged some prominent issues that need to be improved.

A couple of the top problems stated in the letter related to land hoarding and equity landlords. First, land hoarding occurs when investors will purposefully sit on a property to increase demand and lower supply in the area before selling/renting. This is causing major problems for citizens that are struggling to keep up with the increasing prices. The other problem is landlords, “have openly discussed policies of introducing the highest rents possible in order to …

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