The consequences of generational hoarding in Ireland.

realitykeeper

In Ireland there are many examples of the older generations taking decisions to benefit themselves at the expense of younger generations. Here are some examples:

Higher payments are given to the unemployed over 25 than to those under 25.

The younger generations are expected to pay the bank bailout debt/interest which was the consequence of an older generation over borrowing.

The government instantly took action to re-inflate the housing bubble after the crash of 2008 thereby pricing the younger generation out of the market with money the younger generation are expected to pay back with interest.

The generation who overborrowed and defaulted got to keep the inflated properties and of course they raised the rent on the younger generation. Had market forces prevailed, the houses would have fallen in price so much that the younger generation could have become the new property owners and the landlords would be the renters.

State and semi state employees from doctors to nurses and teachers etc get pay deals which benefit themselves to the exclusion of the younger employees joining the work force.

In Ireland, older farmers live on grants and the younger generation who are enthusiastic about working and making a go of farming have to forge a career outside of agriculture.

When a bank gives a loan it looks for collateral. In other words, a young person with skill, ambition, enthusiasm, education and a brilliant project does not get a business loan but the old farmer who wants to buy a young wife from Thailand has no problem because he has the farm as collateral.

Can we blame the milleniums for becoming a bunch of disenfranchized bolsheviks when we the older people hoard all the wealth for ourselves? How will this impact Ireland`s future? Older generations need to stop being so selfish. We need to trust those young people who are talented and hard working so they build their dreams and when they make it, the whole country benefits. Sinse, this is not happening, the future is bleak.

Greaney

You've a good point there. I live in a small town in the West of Ireland and the amount of property hoarding is unbelievable. There are well over 20 empty shops, but only about 5 listed on Daft.ie, two of those have tenants. The rents in the town are more per Sq ft. than the nearest city!!

There's a lot of shenanigans around property in this country. My personal experience... and yes, I've looked into this

• Faux listings of distressed property that's not actually for sale
• Semi finished property that's never seems to be in receivership or been listed
• Property about to be sold individually, then bundled and sold to vulture funds
• Young Entrepreneurs renting for years, with no opportunity to buy

Everyone wants to be a shop owner it seems, but not a shop keeper. It appears our landlord class don't seem to understand that many folk shop online so the nature of retail has changed. And since most of the shops are tenanted, the property is split and the accommodation rented separately so no families can afford to live in town centres anymore.

Yes, there's no other way to put it, we have to wait for a generation to die before we see property 'move'. I'm not joking, we got our house at an affordable rate because the previous resident died, the family kept the house empty for 5 years. I imagine they were waiting for it to be worth 400k again (it was a humble former council house), and what with the siblings who had inherited, being in their 80's, time was something they no longer had.

Meanwhile, there are no rates on empty properties and they slip closer to dereliction. Get's me thinking of the parable of the talents....