Why a rental crisis now?

allibastor

caff wrote: »

I would agree with this, although also add that government decisions can hugely affect land value also. Simply improving transport to reduce commuting time can open up large areas of existing housing on lower value land to people. House prices are largely fixed its the location that adds value.

Problem here is that i many cases people who are in the know and have money to spare are informed of any changes to zoning before most are, so buy the land at reduced rates and then hold for supply/demand to increase their profits

I personally know a person who has done this, they have been told of a new zoning in an area before it has been common knowledge due to their in a local government level, they have good cash reserves and have since bought a number of old properties with plans to do minor repairs and then sit on them for 2 years while the zoning happens and a new development is put up beside them, increasing the properties value.
All this has done is in effect taken about 20+ units away from the rental market for a number of years until the supply is low and then charge a much higher rate.

Jasper79

Jasper79 wrote: »

In a fair society where everybody pulled their weight perhaps it would.

Have you any idea how skewed towards those who are already well off our housing 'market' is?

We are fast moving towards a world in which those with inherited privilege can simply own a few houses and live off rent for their entire lives, whilst average WORKING people cannot own a house at all.

Or just look over the water to London. Is this what we want? A city in which a nurse or a bus driver (lazy feckers!) can't dream of owning a house anywhere that doesn't involve a 90 minute commute to work every day. Whilst the 'supply' that is supposedly desperately needed is bought as empty investments by people who don't even live there.

It's time to put the 'only lazy / feckless people can't afford houses' line to bed. It's not true any more.

And anyway, high house prices are bad for our economy and indeed bad for everyone other than speculators and landowners. At the bottom end your 'scroungers' are on the street but in the middle hard working couples are spending a huge chunk of income on a shoe box.

Housing policy should be based around removing speculation out of the housing market (why do we NEED speculation after all?) and focusing on policies that deliver affordable housing for all.

Kind of sad that this is somehow controversial.

Jasper79

Deleted User wrote: »

Have you any idea how skewed towards those who are already well off our housing 'market' is?

We are fast moving towards a world in which those with inherited privilege can simply own three a few houses and live off rent for their entire lives, whilst average WORKING people cannot own a house at all.

Or just look over the water to London. Is this what we want? A city in which a nurse or a bus driver (lazy feckers!) can't dream of owning a house anywhere that doesn't involve a 90 minute commute to work every day. Whilst the 'supply' that is supposedly desperately needed is bought as empty investments by people who don't even live there.

It's time to put the 'only lazy / feckless people can't afford houses' line to bed. It's not true any more.

And anyway, high house prices are bad for our economy and indeed bad for everyone other than speculators and landowners. At the bottom end your 'scroungers' are on the street but in the middle hard working couples are spending a huge chunk of income on a shoe box.

Housing policy should be based around removing speculation out of the housing market (why do we NEED speculation after all?) and focusing on policies that deliver affordable housing for all.

Kind of sad that this is somehow controversial.

That's not what I meant at all. Of course anybody that works should be able to afford a house, it just may not be the size or location they want as per your example above.

murphaph

Joe Late Notch wrote: »

I don't think a lot of companies have any major advantage in being in and around Dublin to be honest. Particularly ones with big manufacturing plants etc.

Erm...maybe a workforce is an advantage? My company has its headquarters in Munich...right in the centre. Rent is €25 per m² per month. Why don't we move out of Munich? Because the employees want to live there. My boss doesn't like spending half a million on rent each year but to attract skilled staff he has to.

Del2005

Shelflife wrote: »

Again you may well be correct, my point is that businesses should be encouraged to set up outside of Dublin and re energise rural communities and take the heat out of the housing problem in Dublin.

A 3 bed house in Castlebar is approx €1000 per month cheaper than a 3 bed house in Lucan thats roughly €12k a year into your hand disposable income or roughly €24k a year gross .

I'm open to correction but the EU has removed almost all government subsidises for the East coast and there are huge grants available for setting up in the BMW region. So the property costs are lower and there are way more grants available but companies are choosing to pay higher rents and receive no grant to setup in Dublin. I can't see what else can be done to get companies out of Dublin without forcing them out of the country.

Riverireland

Jasper79 wrote: »

In a fair society where everybody pulled their weight perhaps it would.

Couple that with a society where everyone has equal opportunity and you would certainly have a point. This is just creating halting sites for non travellers. It is a backward move and I have sympathy for those who will inhabit these "homes". And those in surrounding housing. It's going to be disastrous.

4ensic15

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=79006148

This thread form over 4 years ago gives an analysis of what was happening then in the market and what would happen in the future. Interesting to see how things have turned out! The key issue is supply. The attempts to increase supply have been absolutely pathetic and the supply diminishing measures are left in place.
Waiting for new building is idiotic. The problems developers face are not just in relation to bank credit. They used to get the architects, accountants, solicitors, materials providers et al to work on credit with everyone being paid as the development sold. That doesn't happen now because everyone in the chain wants money up front as they can themselves no longer get bank credit and no longer have the confidence that things will work out. Rent certainty, tax reliefs are unlikely to deliver a single house for years.
WE now also have a situation where vulture funds are dictating to the government about the rental market. This can have only one result!

Del2005

FrStone wrote: »

Well I think there should be very little help for the one or two property landlord...

In his budget speech, Michael Noonan mentioned the need for a professionalisation of the rental sector. If we encourage large rental companies in to the country we will increase the quality and standard of rental housing.

Large vulture funds have already snapped up a huge part of our land already. We are in the middle of a rental crisis where any type of ***t hole is getting people queuing up to rent yet not one vulture fund has started building. They never will with the current laws which takes a year to evict a non paying tennant and if they do change the law then the same people who are homeless now will be the first turfed out, so we'll be back to the same situation but all the rent money will now be going off shore so we'll have less money to build more social housing.

murphaph

murphaph wrote: »

Erm...maybe a workforce is an advantage? My company has its headquarters in Munich...right in the centre. Rent is €25 per m² per month. Why don't we move out of Munich? Because the employees want to live there. My boss doesn't like spending half a million on rent each year but to attract skilled staff he has to.

Do you really think a multinational offering high skilled high paying jobs will have any difficulty in attracting peope to where ever they set up. The lower cost of living and the fact an awful lot of people don't want to be stuck in a big city are also big incentives. I can't even bear the thought of having to live in Dublin.

Also we aren't taking about setting up on the Arran islands. 30 mins or so outside cork or Galway city won't give the slightest problem but open up so much opportunity for housing in small towns etc with empty houses. It's already the case just look at where the big pharma and medical device companies are in cork, they are out in the county.

mirrorwall14

Can anyone explain to me why the council have allowed their houses to be purchased? Surely was that very short sighted of them? I actually didn't realise that houses could be bought out but I have recently realised that two relations of mine are living in ex council houses which they bought on preferential rates due to having made the housing list in their 20s. Now I don't mean it in a bad way but both of them could have afforded their own home in later life when they both ended up in full time employment after going back to get qualifications.

Does it not make more sense for councils to have 10 year leases on their homes with no options to buy it out? I mean ideally no one should be reliant on social housing their entire life

Lux23

Joe Late Notch wrote: »

Have they? I can't say they have stood out to me as being hit particularity hard in comparison to anyone else.

Cuts to rent allowance, a change in the age that a single parent can no longer receive lone parents, cuts in child benefit, raising medical card thresholds, a reduction in the number of special needs assistants. I could go on for pages.

Lux23

JustTheOne wrote: »

Where is this golden entitled rule you speak of?
is it.

Little thing called human rights? Heard of that have you?

stateofflux

Joe Late Notch wrote: »

Do you really think a multinational offering high skilled high paying jobs will have any difficulty in attracting peope to where ever they set up. The lower cost of living and the fact an awful lot of people don't want to be stuck in a big city are also big incentives. I can't even bear the thought of having to live in Dublin.

Also we aren't taking about setting up on the Arran islands. 30 mins or so outside cork or Galway city won't give the slightest problem but open up so much opportunity for housing in small towns etc with empty houses. It's already the case just look at where the big pharma and medical device companies are in cork, they are out in the county.

i think they will have some difficulty.. Highly skilled young professionals will tend to gravitate to cities. Pfizer in Ringaskiddy is only 25min drive to cork city afaik

road_high

This is only my opinion here but I think there was a complete over reaction to the recession here, driven by the media. 5 years ago in this country everyday it was all about how absolutely fcuked we were and basically Ireland had no future.
A lot of this fed down into the construction sector in particular. All planning for the future went out the window. Leading economists were predicting it would be DECADES before the economy picked up. Who was going to build in these circumstances, you'd have been laughed at.
The recovery was much quicker than anticipated. Nothing was built in the past 6/7 years whatsoever, but 10000s of new jobs were added, coupled with strong inward migration and high population growth. This has all fed into the severe shortage especially in Dublin and Leinster.

newacc2015

Joe Late Notch wrote: »

Do you really think a multinational offering high skilled high paying jobs will have any difficulty in attracting peope to where ever they set up. The lower cost of living and the fact an awful lot of people don't want to be stuck in a big city are also big incentives. I can't even bear the thought of having to live in Dublin.

Also we aren't taking about setting up on the Arran islands. 30 mins or so outside cork or Galway city won't give the slightest problem but open up so much opportunity for housing in small towns etc with empty houses. It's already the case just look at where the big pharma and medical device companies are in cork, they are out in the county.

How many large US companies are located in the middle of no where? None that I can think of, as well paid, educated people want to live in young vibrant cities like NYC, Atlanta, Dallas. I would earn prefer earn €35k in Dublin, than €45k in Leitrim. What Im going to do in Leitrim with all my money and zero social scene? There is no much more than money at play than picking a place to live.

Most people from the sticks cant imagine living in Dublin. But the fact is most people from America or Europe that work for multinationals have lived in cities most of their life. Like them, I think living in a rural area is my version of hell. Europeans like the fact they can go from Barrow street and be on a flight back to Germany for the weekend in less than 90 mins. Thats not possible living in Galway.

Im sure IDA have tried to selling that living in the arse hole of no where is great. But I imagine most MNCs see that trade off of slightly cheaper living is not worth the drop in quality of life

pwurple

Newacc2015,. There are more urban centres in this country than just Dublin.

I've always lived in cities too. London, joburg, Amsterdam. And i would not like to live rurally either. But there's more to Ireland than one piddling city. I've lived in Cork for the last few years. Heaps of work around for me, public transport, loads of shops, pubs, restaurants, an airport. Anyone in Galway or Limerick city can get to Shannon airport and go to Europe or transatlantic, so your post just comes across as a smidge inexperienced.

newacc2015

pwurple wrote: »

Newacc2015,. There are more urban centres in this country than just Dublin.

I've always lived in cities too. London, joburg, Amsterdam. And i would not like to live rurally either. But there's more to Ireland than one piddling city. I've lived in Cork for the last few years. Heaps of work around for me, public transport, loads of shops, pubs, restaurants, an airport. Anyone in Galway or Limerick city can get to Shannon airport and go to Europe or transatlantic, so your post just comes across as a smidge inexperienced.

Urban centres than are smaller than most suburbs in Dublin. Lets not pretend these "urban centres" are an ideal place for a twenty something to live. There is rarely public transport. There is lack of modern shopping facilities and very limited sport options. Cork/Shannon have relatively limited flight options.

Lets pretend as a twenty something living in Hamburg, Germany. Why would I want to live in Carrick-on-Shannon over Dublin excluding the cheaper living costs? You can call Dublin what ever you like. But it offers a far better quality of living for young people who like to be with other young people of the same nationalities. Look at Irish in Australia. They all tend to live in the big cities with other Irish. Yes other parts of Australia have jobs. But no one young person wants to live in them

John_Rambo

Joe Late Notch wrote: »

Do you really think a multinational offering high skilled high paying jobs will have any difficulty in attracting peope to where ever they set up. The lower cost of living and the fact an awful lot of people don't want to be stuck in a big city are also big incentives. I can't even bear the thought of having to live in Dublin.

But they do want to live in a city. Any of the younger professionals I know through sports would move to another city if their company up sticks and moved from Dublin to a culturally secluded area.

Most Irish rural born people I know in Dublin wouldn't dream of heading home to live except for one couple that are on a promise of land and a farm, but they seem to have their lives on hold till the parents pass away. Sad way of living if you ask me. Most are paving their own way in Dublin, raising their kids, working, living in nice areas with superb amenities, good public transport links to the city centre etc... It's not what you think it is, schools in walking distance, work in cycling distance, parks, beaches, restaurants, pubs, bars etc..

murphaph

Joe Late Notch wrote: »

Do you really think a multinational offering high skilled high paying jobs will have any difficulty in attracting peope to where ever they set up. The lower cost of living and the fact an awful lot of people don't want to be stuck in a big city are also big incentives. I can't even bear the thought of having to live in Dublin.

Also we aren't taking about setting up on the Arran islands. 30 mins or so outside cork or Galway city won't give the slightest problem but open up so much opportunity for housing in small towns etc with empty houses. It's already the case just look at where the big pharma and medical device companies are in cork, they are out in the county.

Sure why doesn't every company set up shop out in the middle of nowhere so? Do you think my boss wants to spend such a huge chink of change on Munich rents? Why doesn't he move the firm to rural Bavaria or even cheaper to the rural Saxony or somewhere else in the former GDR?? It sounds like a foolproof plan, so why do so many companies prefer to burn their money on high rents instead?

People in well paid jobs can afford the higher prices in urban areas and pay them so they can avail of the things urban dwellers take for granted. Theatre, cinema, restaurants, galleries, airports, sporting events etc. Not everyone wants to have to drive half an hour to the nearest decent eatery.

Many of the people filling these highly skilled jobs are also not coming in with an Irish mindset to housing...they will often have grown up in an urban environment and would never even consider living in a small town or village or heaven forbid a one off down a lane somewhere.

tommybrees

Living in a small town in Tipperary. Easily over 200 houses empty here which require very little work to modernize.
Plenty people available to work hard for probably minimum wage. So cost of upgrading these property's is not going to bankrupt somebody.

Kurooi

I'm new to this market so I gotta ask, is this a seasonal thing? And this isn't normal, right?

I mean money aside, there are barely any places being advertised!

Riverireland

tommybrees wrote: »

Living in a small town in Tipperary. Easily over 200 houses empty here which require very little work to modernize.
Plenty people available to work hard for probably minimum wage. So cost of upgrading these property's is not going to bankrupt somebody.

You'd have to ask why Alan Kelly is doing nothing with these. In his local area and all.

JustTheOne

Riverireland wrote: »

You'd have to ask why Alan Kelly is doing nothing with these. In his local area and all.

How many times does he have to say he has provided funding to all local authorities to open up all boarded houses across Ireland but they wont for some reason.

On primetime last night it was said that this is a culmination of 3 decades of neglect of social housing.

Its all just come to a crash on Alan Kellys doorstep.

newacc2015

newacc2015 wrote: »

How many large US companies are located in the middle of no where? None that I can think of, as well paid, educated people want to live in young vibrant cities like NYC, Atlanta, Dallas. I would earn prefer earn €35k in Dublin, than €45k in Leitrim. What Im going to do in Leitrim with all my money and zero social scene? There is no much more than money at play than picking a place to live.

I'd prefer to earn 35k and live in a rural area than 45k in Dublin, for a start I'd have more money at the end of the month as the cost of living would be so much lower.

newacc2015 wrote: »

Most people from the sticks cant imagine living in Dublin. But the fact is most people from America or Europe that work for multinationals have lived in cities most of their life. Like them, I think living in a rural area is my version of hell.

How about we worry less about where the europeans and americans will live as we have our own highly skilled workers who are happy to live outside of Dublin.

newacc2015 wrote: »

Europeans like the fact they can go from Barrow street and be on a flight back to Germany for the weekend in less than 90 mins. Thats not possible living in Galway.

Shannon is an hour from Galway and will be 40 mins when the motorway is competed the whole way. Shannon has a lot of flight options. Cork airport is 15 mins from the city and very convenient for the surrounding rural areas also and has a decent number of flight destinations also and transatlantic flight starting next year. Dublin airport is a disaster of a place and best avoided if possible.

newacc2015 wrote: »

Im sure IDA have tried to selling that living in the arse hole of no where is great. But I imagine most MNCs see that trade off of slightly cheaper living is not worth the drop in quality of life

A lot of big MNCs need large manufacturing plants. How many of those are within 30 mins of Dublin city centre or even close? very few if any. They are spread around the country with large presences in Cork, Galway and limerick suburbs and out around the counties also. Which is very much going against what you are saying.

John_Rambo wrote: »

Most Irish rural born people I know in Dublin wouldn't dream of heading home to live .

I know only a few who moved to Dublin in the first place as people I know generally don't like the idea of living there and the ones that are there have either already moved home or are just waiting until both partners can get a job at the same time. I probably only know maybe 7 or 8 people who moved to Dublin (including a sibling) and I can't see any if them there in 5 years or less even, 3 have already moved home to settle down another couple have gotten married and are really trying their best to make the move soon also.

The_Conductor

Joe Late Notch wrote: »

I don't think a lot of companies have any major advantage in being in and around Dublin to be honest. Particularly ones with big manufacturing plants etc.

Intel and Hewlett Packard- when determining their locations- stated the chosen development locations had to be within 30 minutes of Dublin airport and on the outskirts of Dublin- as mentioned above- because this is where their multinational staff want to work.

I was involved in a call centre that thought it was a great idea to relocate (from Sandyford) to a more rural town. It was predominantly serving EU clients. A sweetener of 3 months salary was given to staff who moved with the company- who were still there a year later. The majority of staff chose to move- on that basis. However- once they got their lumpsums- they handed in their notice en-mass- and the call centre was forced to relocate again (this time they went to Scotland).

Companies- particularly those reliant on young and mobile workforces- have to locate where young workers want to live.

The_Conductor

The_Conductor wrote: »

Intel and Hewlett Packard- when determining their locations- stated the chosen development locations had to be within 30 minutes of Dublin airport and on the outskirts of Dublin- as mentioned above- because this is where their multinational staff want to work.

I would consider leixlip well outside Dublin especially considering the traffic issues around Dublin.

What about all the MNCs around the country that aren't in Dublin? I'm not going to go listing them off as its not the place for it here. i'd also add I am not talking about going to extremely remote places as they aren't going to have much in the line of accommodation either. Locations between cities or less than an hours drive from a city (other than Dublin) would be the locations I'd be thinking. These types of locations already have MNC but it should be encourage even more with more incentives to companies to locate away from Dublin.

Funny thing is the one thing stopping me applying for a job in Intel is their location as I don't want to move to the side of the country its an awful pity they didn't setup in the west or even the south.

newacc2015

Joe Late Notch wrote: »

How about we worry less about where the europeans and americans will live as we have our own highly skilled workers who are happy to live outside of Dublin.

I know only a few who moved to Dublin in the first place as people I know generally don't like the idea of living there and the ones that are there have either already moved home or are just waiting until both partners can get a job at the same time. I probably only know maybe 7 or 8 people who moved to Dublin (including a sibling) and I can't see any if them there in 5 years or less even, 3 have already moved home to settle down another couple have gotten married and are really trying their best to make the move soon also.

How many Irish people can speak Italian, Russian or Chinese fluently? Partially none. In most MNCs, Irish people are the manager and the senior staff in the company. The rest of the staff are multilingual non-nationals. Saying Irish people could do these jobs is ridiculous

Look at Glassdoor who are opening a HQ, they choose Dublin for its ability to get pan European talent. There wasnt even a mention of the "talent of the Irish workforce", that MNCs used to go on about
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/glassdoor-to-create-100-jobs-and-launches-dedicated-irish-site-1.2407832

You said your friends have gone home. Not your friends have moved from Dublin to another rural area because they disliked it. Its entirely different from moving from Monaghan to Longford. People will always miss their hometowns and want to move back. That doesnt mean Dublin isnt a great place to live. Most people who have lived in cities would never consider a job in the middle of no where

Mrs OBumble

Joe Late Notch wrote: »

Do you really think a multinational offering high skilled high paying jobs will have any difficulty in attracting peope to where ever they set up. The lower cost of living and the fact an awful lot of people don't want to be stuck in a big city are also big incentives. I can't even bear the thought of having to live in Dublin.

Also we aren't taking about setting up on the Arran islands. 30 mins or so outside cork or Galway city won't give the slightest problem but open up so much opportunity for housing in small towns etc with empty houses. It's already the case just look at where the big pharma and medical device companies are in cork, they are out in the county.

Yes, speaking for Galway I can say with absolute certainty that they do have some difficulty.

There are people who grew up around the area, who've done their 10 or so years in Dublin and now started a young family and want to move back home. Sometimes they have the right skills that a multi-national wants - but sometimes they don't.

There are a few people who have moved here for some aspects of the culture/music. (Includes some tech-professionals - but not a lot). Or the access to the environment/nature.

But people who don't have either of these motivations see a small city with crap shopping (even the locals go to Limerick/Athlone/Dublin for stuff), not enough schools (only easing now as new ones are opened years after they were needed) bad traffic and very-small-town attitudes which make it very hard for blow-ins to become part of the community. And they see that they will be working with people who have chosen to sacrifice their career for lifestyle - this can be unattractive ("graveyard of ambition"). Even some locals say that the best thing about Galway is the express bus to Dublin.

Some come anyway for the job - but stories where multi-nationals have changed their mind and laid highly-skilled people off three month after setting up a new team make people nervous about moving to an area where there is a small pool of other potential employers. (Not rumour, BTW, I can name company/people where this has happened.)

Also, employers who do set up in these locations are sometimes low payers: I'm thinking of on German multi-national in the East of Galway city, and one large Irish company in the west, but of who have specific reputations as places to avoid just because of this. In general, apart from the most difficult-to-hire developers, Galway salaries are a good bit lower than the equivalent job in Dublin.


And that's Galway, which does actually have a housing shortage as well: I've just sucked up a 20% rent increase because basically I have no option, anywhere else will cost as much. If you think about Castlebar or Ballina or wherever, you have smaller town, no express bus, far less cultural life etc. It IS hard for employers to recruit there.

Caliden

Having worked in Galway, Cork and Dublin. I couldn't see myself living outside of Dublin for at least 5 years.

Apologies if that offends anyone but it feels like an actual city rather than a town (Cork less so).

Go into the city centre of Dublin any day of the week and it's busy. Every decent pub/restaurant will have a good crowd and there's always something on.

Galway is quiet mid week except for the student spots. Cork has a bit more life to it and I'd consider moving there permanently except it's just too far away from family.

Mrs OBumble

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Yes, speaking for Galway I can say with absolute certainty that they do have some difficulty.

There are people who grew up around the area, who've done their 10 or so years in Dublin and now started a young family and want to move back home. Sometimes they have the right skills that a multi-national wants - but sometimes they don't.

There are of course also the very large group of people you ignored, those who are from the area and never moved away (of which I know many and a few in very highly paid jobs in MNCs).

I am looking to move back to Galway myself when the opportunity arises and I am always checking the MNC around the area for highly skilled jobs and they are not that many popping up, certainly not in the numbers that would tell me people struggle to get people. I do understand that some places struggle to get skilled people, but from my experiences of it the reason is usually insufficient pay rather than location (skilled public sector jobs can be very difficult to fill at times due to pay).

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

But people who don't have either of these motivations see a small city with crap shopping (even the locals go to Limerick/Athlone/Dublin for stuff), not enough schools (only easing now as new ones are opened years after they were needed) bad traffic and very-small-town attitudes which make it very hard for blow-ins to become part of the community. And they see that they will be working with people who have chosen to sacrifice their career for lifestyle - this can be unattractive ("graveyard of ambition"). Even some locals say that the best thing about Galway is the express bus to Dublin.

Stuff about people going to athlone shopping etc is a massive exaggeration, galway has pretty much everything you could need and I've never ever heard a Galway person say the best thing about galway is the bus to Dublin. As for traffic, new MNC should be setting up outside the city and some of the ones there are already on the outside so that eases traffic worries if people also live outside the city.

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Some come anyway for the job - but stories where multi-nationals have changed their mind and laid highly-skilled people off three month after setting up a new team make people nervous about moving to an area where there is a small pool of other potential employers. (Not rumour, BTW, I can name company/people where this has happened.)

Also, employers who do set up in these locations are sometimes low payers: I'm thinking of on German multi-national in the East of Galway city, and one large Irish company in the west, but of who have specific reputations as places to avoid just because of this. In general, apart from the most difficult-to-hire developers, Galway salaries are a good bit lower than the equivalent job in Dublin.

There are also some of the top MNC in the world in Galway, with very attractive well paid jobs.

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

And that's Galway, which does actually have a housing shortage as well: I've just sucked up a 20% rent increase because basically I have no option, anywhere else will cost as much. If you think about Castlebar or Ballina or wherever, you have smaller town, no express bus, far less cultural life etc. It IS hard for employers to recruit there.

As above, if companies locate outside the cities people can easily live around the county and small towns and commute to work, this means cheaper accommodation and no problems with schools etc either.