Getting Over Ourselves when it Comes to Housing

bitofabind

The thing about places like London is,

1. London salaries. These are a damn sight higher than Dublin / any part of Ireland salaries across most industries and roles. I know because I lived there for years and regularly get contacted by recruiters offering €50k+ for the same role and with better conditions E.G better flexibility and working hours. Similar recruiters for similar companies in Ireland want to pay me less, despite the fact that my living costs in Dublin would be the same if not higher than London. US tech companies can be particularly bad for this - their HQ are in Dublin not just because of the tax break, but because they want the highly educated staff on a lower salary band.

2. London isn't a total sh2thole and transport links are a lot better. Parts of it are, yes, but in general your tax money goes a lot further for things like transport, free healthcare and getting from A to B doesn't cost as much. It's an international hub and it knows it and is set up to provide for the masses that live there. Dublin doesn't seem to have gotten the memo in terms of it's 'global city' status, public transport can't be relied upon, it's got an image problem in terms of the growing homelessness/drug addiction and it's just a bit rough to live in.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119038618#Comment_119038618

hahaha, tis in me arse, public policy has always been geared towards (re)inflating asset markets, particular property markets, this is common across the planet, and is a fact here in little old ireland! credit fueled property booms, and now a qe fueled asset boom, same same!

riclad

I think public policy in the form of central banks has been to print money , lower interest rates ,in order to stimulate the economy ,which of course tends to increase the value of assets including the stock market,bonds etc when interest rates are low that tends to make investments in property more attractive. ireland is an open economy ,we depend on international trends, exports ,tourism, and investment from international corporations like google, facebook .

porkmaster

I don't think there's anything wrong in the housing market at all.

https://ibb.co/S3sSf1b

Grayson

I live in Germany. I moved here last year. I was renting in Kildare and commuting to Dublin city centre. I was paying about a grand a month for a tiny 1 bed apt that was falling apart. A few years ago the landlord upped the rent by 40% in one year. It was illegal but they said they'd sell the place if I didn't agree. I looked around and there were no places available.

So I got head hunted for a job in Dusseldorf. I took the job. I live in the city centre. I'm a 10 min walk from the equivalent of Templebar and Grafton st. And Grafton st looks cheap compared to the shops here. I'm in a nice neighborhood, with a park next door and loads of cafes and restaurants. People in Dusseldorf complain about the rents. They're really high for the region. It's cheaper in Cologne, Dortmund, Essen etc... My apt here is 3-4 times the size of the one I had in Ireland (It's just shy of 100m2). And it costs the same as the shithole in Ireland. People here think I'm stupid for getting such a huge place. I just love having space. I'll move somewhere smaller in a few years but for now I love it.

I did have to furnish it my self. I did it from second hand stuff and Ikea. If I move back to ireland I'll either sell it off or have it shipped back.

The population of North Rhine Westphalia, the state I'm in, is 17 million. So anyone who says that it's s small place with a small pop is wrong.

I'm disgusted by the prices in Ireland. I was on a good wage working for a tech company and I couldn't rent a nice place. I was earning multiples what the people who were serving me coffee were and I had to wonder how young people managed to live anywhere.

I was looking to buy pre pandemic. I had a sizeable deposit but I'm in my 40's so the monthly payments would be high (max 20 year mortgage). And unless I'm in a relationship, with two wages, there's no hope of me getting a new build, so there's no government help for me.

In ireland there's a huge part of the population trapped. They have to pay extortionate rent. They either can't or don't want to move back home. I don't believe moving somewhere where you have a 90 minute commute is the answer either. I could have moved to drogheda or some other far out "commuter" town. I'd have that commute and I also wouldn't have known a single human being there. And if I'm going to move somewhere where I don't know anyone, I might as well move countries.

wotzgoingon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119047184#Comment_119047184

But what about the language barrier. Unless you speak German of course.

riclad

So what happened is we had a boom, the tech companys moved here, we had 1000s of people on high wages, but theres simply not the supply of good quality rental units to meet demand.The german government has a policy of building 1000s of houses ,apartments every year, based on no of workers, population increase projected every year. Government housing policys change every 3years based on who is in power , no irish government has a 10 year policy for anything. now we have inflation, the cost of building materials going up by 35 per cent.i,m not an expert in recruiting i think if you are in the tech sector you can get a job if you can speak english, in many countrys ,english is an international language in business

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119048868#Comment_119048868

They all speak at least some English. Professionals are always fluent. So doctors, dentists are all easy to visit. Their secretaries might not speak english though so when you first register it's best to pop along to the actual office.

The company I work for provides free group classes in German. I'm still at a very basic level so I'm thinking of hiring a tutor to speed things up.

There's a lot of bureaucracy here compared to Ireland, so the first couple of months there's always something else to learn.

I don't know if I'll stay here long term. I'm in my 40's and when I was younger I considered moving but honestly I was more interested in settling down in Ireland. Thing is that the property in Ireland is incredibly expensive to rent and it doesn't look like it'll get cheaper any time soon. And over the course of my lifetime house prices have gone through huge cycles of boom and bust.

And as bad as I feel for myself, I feel really bad for people who didn't have my resources/opportunities. I can't buy or rent a place but I'm still lucky that I have skills that are in demand, I'm earning a decent amount and have good savings. There's a lot of people not in that position.

And it's all the governments fault. I will never vote for FF/FG ever again and I know a lot of people who feel the same. They're just toxic at this stage.

Garzorico

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119019335#Comment_119019335

I would have thought it’s to do with simple economics - renting is a monthly payment for the rest of your days, mortgage repayments aren’t, they end after 20/30 years ergo 20/30 years monthly payment free.

Nermal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119030114#Comment_119030114

Is this a post from 1995? €30,000 for a 3-bed in Dublin 25 years ago?

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119049740#Comment_119049740

I know someone who went to college in 1994. His Dad, who was a bank manager, bought him an apartment on parnell st. It cost about that much. His parents paid the mortgage when he was in college because it worked out just a bit more than renting somewhere for him.

In 1995 I was evicted from student accommodation because the landlord wanted to sell the house. It cost him 30k to buy three years before. It was going for about 36k then. The way he saw it, it had increased by 20% in 3 years. He could sell up, pay off his mortgage and make a tidy profit. I remember him saying, those sort of increases couldn't go on for ever, the price would drop down soon.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119049546#Comment_119049546

It's also the security. As I mentioned earlier I had my rent hiked up massively. I don't want to be a pensioner and have no security and be made homeless because a greedy landlord wants to squeeze more money out. Security matters to me more than anything else.

Nermal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119049940#Comment_119049940

I think you will have to go back a lot further than 25 years to find three-bed semis in Dublin for €30K, outside of hovels in the worst parts of town. Perhaps the mid-seventies.

1995 the national average cost of a new house was €78,000 (second-hand cost was €74,300 and respective costs in Dublin were €86,700 and €89,000).

https://www.finfacts-blog.com/2018/07/irish-real-house-prices-up-175-in-50.html

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119050023#Comment_119050023

Th

The average price of a new house was £61,527 in 1995 compared with £57,281. (I'm looking at punts, not euros) And I wasn't in college in Dublin but rather nearby.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/new-house-prices-rose-7-4-in-1995-1.38122

The apartment on parnell st was a tiny two bed. (Nowadays it would be a spacious two bed with amazing potential.)

One thing to remember is how fast everything shot up. When I was googling I found this. I put a screenshot of the average price increase over 3 years. It's a nice little snippet of the past.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2018/0125/935927-record-house-prices/

Quadrivium

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119050023#Comment_119050023

Averages don't give an accurate context. Some houses in Dublin worth well over 1 million punts would skew the average disproportionately.

The Average price for a former council house was approximately £25k to £40k in 1995. The same houses today go for €300k +