solve the housing problem easily...some solutions?

Oh it’s begrudery and you know it

Just saw Eoin O'Broin (SF) and Mary Fitzpatrick (FF) on prime time. They were both asked what they would do or have done to prevent the mass exodus of small landlords. Neither of them could answer the question...

They also would not accept that excess regulation and taxes are a major contribution to the exodus.

I think properties not in RPZ’s are still exempt from planning permission but must still register etc, not sure about the room in house to be honest, from my view point if it gets to be too much hassle I’ll just stop letting it out altogether.

Yeah it's not very opaque. The government will hardly expect home owners to begin renting their spare room out full time.

At present, there are 6 Local Authority (LA) areas and 48 Local Electoral Areas (LEAs) which have been designated as Rent Pressure Zones.

• 24th December 2016

1. Cork City Council 
2. Dublin City Council 
3. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council
4. Fingal County Council
5. South Dublin County Council 

• 27th January 2017

1. Ballincollig – Carrigaline LEA, Co. Cork
2. Galway City Central LEA, Co. Galway
3. Galway City East LEA, Co. Galway
4. Galway City West LEA, Co. Galway
5. Celbridge-Leixlip LEA, Co. Kildare
6. Naas LEA, Co. Kildare
7. Newbridge LEA, Co. Kildare
8. Ashbourne LEA, Co. Meath
9. Laytown-Bettystown LEA, Co. Meath
10. Ratoath LEA, Co. Meath
11. Bray LEA, Co. Wicklow
12. Wicklow LEA, Co. Wicklow

• 24th March 2017

1. Cobh LEA, Co. Cork
2. Maynooth LEA, Co. Kildare

• 22nd September 2017

1. Drogheda LEA, Co. Louth
2. Greystones LEA, Co. Wicklow

• 28th March 2019

1. Limerick City East LEA, Co. Limerick 
2. Navan LEA, Co. Meath 

• 2nd July 2019

1. Fermoy LEA, Co. Cork
2. Midleton LEA, Co. Cork
3. Athenry-Oranmore LEA, Co. Galway
4. Gort-Kinvara LEA, Co. Galway
5. Kilkenny LEA, Co. Kilkenny
6. Graiguecullen-Portarlington LEA, Co. Laois
7. Portlaoise LEA, Co. Laois 
8. Limerick City North LEA, Co. Limerick
9. Limerick City West LEA, Co. Limerick 
10. Ardee LEA, Co. Louth 
11. Dundalk-Carlingford LEA, Co. Louth
12. Dundalk South LEA, Co. Louth 
13. Kells LEA, Co. Meath
14. Trim LEA, Co. Meath
15. Waterford City East LEA, Co. Waterford 
16. Waterford City South LEA, Co. Waterford 
17. Athlone LEA, Co. Westmeath
18. Gorey LEA, Co. Wexford
19. Arklow LEA, Co. Wicklow  

• 26th September 2019

1. Carlow LEA, Co. Carlow 
2. Macroom LEA, Co. Cork

• 18th December 2019

1. Cobh LEA, Co. Cork (1st Cobh LEA designation occurred in 2017, see above)
2. Piltown LEA, Co. Kilkenny 
3. Sligo Strandhill LEA, Co. Sligo 
4. Baltinglass LEA, Co. Wicklow 

• 22nd April 2020

1. Mallow LEA, Co. Cork
2. Killarney LEA, Co. Kerry
3. Athy LEA, Co. Kildare
4. Tullamore LEA, Co. Offaly
5. Mullingar LEA, Co. Westmeath

• 16th July 2020

1. Bandon-Kinsale LEA, Co. Cork 

• 29th September 2020 

1. Kildare County Council

From RTB site

Design far more affordable 35 sq metre apartments And allow studios of 20-2/ sq m. Far more local elderly friendly accommodation, then get their houses to families etc..

Allow adu, auxiliary development units. Like in the US, basically garden rooms... existing companies can have these up in a single day!!! Services are already on site...

5% vacant or derelict property levy ..

I have a feeling that there will be very little chance of successfully registering if in a RPZ or if it is not your primary residence. I think many Airbnb landlords will just utilise their existing network of past guests for future cash prices. Martin's interference is a big blow to people who rely on Airbnb as their income (I'm not talking about landlords with multiple properties on Airbnb).

I would hope that some common sense is used but can't see it. The governments own failings will seriously impact tourism and small business in this country to cover up their own initial ineptness.

https://epaper.independentnewsstand.ie/titles/sundayindependent/8312/publications/352/articles/1722363/29/2/?secret=f796a39a873b9d8385449abd82fe511a

Local government ineptitude is at the heart of the housing crisis

COLM MCCARTHY

The pace of residential construction is declining, new data from the Central Statistics Office confirms. Planning permissions for apartments have been weakest of all housing types while figures from Daft.ie show rents continue to rise.

Especially in Dublin, the supply of private rental accommodation has dried up and there is no prospect of any early improvement in housing affordability, whether measured by purchase prices or rents. Schools are unable to recruit teachers in the capital; gardaí, nurses and other employees on middle incomes are being squeezed out of a city increasingly the preserve of high earners.

Housing experts are unanimous that affordability cannot be achieved without a sharp and sustained increase in new build, focused on the areas of greatest excess demand.

In a series of recent reports, Professor Ronan Lyons and colleagues at Trinity College Dublin have argued the targets for new build, in addition to under-attainment, are in any event far too low. Adding 30,000 new units a year seems to be about the limit of government ambition. Even if built where most needed, this would not be enough to make a difference.

It is government policy to skew population growth away from the Dublin area. The National Development Plan contains an explicit objective to this effect, which is feeding into the decisions of local planners about residential zoning. If the excess demand driving rents skywards in the capital is not met by increased supply, the dysfunction in the market will intensify.

Over the last several decades there has been a steady outflow of Dubliners into adjoining counties, creating sprawl, long-distance commuting, a hostile environment for public transport and a displacement of population by income band. Politicians in the Dublin suburbs have even opposed new residential schemes on the explicit grounds that more supply would depress house prices.

A report from the ESRI has calculated that greater supply would indeed see prices drop: an extra 10,000 units a year delivering 35,000 for the next decade would cut prices by 12pc. Ronan Lyons reckons the target should be higher again, perhaps as much as 50,000, which would mean an even larger drop, particularly if building was encouraged in those areas where the affordability crisis is most intense.

There is simply no sign of radical reform in housing provision, conceded to be the greatest current policy failure. When the first item on the to-do list must be dodged, the soft option is to substitute activity for progress. So it is with housing policy.

Actually building more housing requires unpalatable political decisions and there is an unspoken conspiracy across the parties to avoid real-world action that would ease supply blockages. Subsidies to purchasers, rent control, assorted stimuli to demand, minor amendments to planning laws, ideological bias against foreign investors in landlord companies, all provide hiding places for the politically craven.

The media portray specious objections to each proposal which comes along as local democracy in action. Any housing policy requires building more residential units in some identified location, most logically in the places where prices and rents are highest. Every prospective location has a residents' association, or will quickly create one. And every residents' association finds supporters in the main political parties, many of whose councillors, TDs and senators compete to lead the opposition to whatever has been proposed.

All parties profess concern about the extraordinary level of prices and rents and concede that the housing crisis is a colossal policy failure. But they frustrate each and every proposal for more actual housing.

Whatever happened to the Housebuilders' Party? This used to be a term of abuse aimed at Fianna Fáil to which none of today's parties can credibly aspire.

Two current controversies in Dublin illustrate the pattern. Plans for 1,600 units at the Clonliffe site, close to Croke Park and walking distance from Dublin city centre, have been on ice for more than a decade, opposed by politicians of all parties, notably Sinn Féin leader and local TD Mary Lou McDonald. Across the city at South Circular Road, a 410-unit apartment scheme on the Player Wills site, where cigarette production ceased in 2005, is headed to the European Court no less. Opposition from local residents, led by councillors, has prevailed against a scheme approved by An Bord Pleanála.

Last Wednesday, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar pledged the Government would do everything possible to address the housing crisis and use every policy lever available to it. The Government would be focusing in the coming weeks on what it can do to accelerate the delivery of new housing, he said.

The principal initiative will be a new planning bill, which will propose, for example, that people from Donegal will no longer be able to raise objections to housing developments in Wexford. Since Wexford is generously endowed with home-grown objectors, this will make no difference. Nor will it inhibit An Taisce, which objects to residential and other developments in every county in Ireland.

There could be changes to planning which would help. The State delegates important functions to special-purpose agencies, semi-state commercial companies and to local government. Since the State's foundation, there has been a steady decline in willingness to rely on local authorities, which have lost functions in areas such as health and education. Until recently they were directly involved in the water industry, as they had been in electricity supply until the 1930s. Any new planning act should consider relieving them of all responsibility for land-use decisions, on the grounds that local government failure is at the heart of the housing crisis.

Local councils have come to represent the Nimby interest, unwilling to zone land for residential development, reluctant to grant usable planning permissions even on land that enjoys zoning, and sluggish in the provision of essential services to developers. The 'local democracy' defence is specious: mortgage-free homeowners have been granted excessive veto rights through the local council involvement, ultimately the power to prevent the next generation from joining their ranks.

Ever hear of lies, damn lies and statistics? There are plenty of new rental only apartment blocks advertising on Daft, but despite the hundreds of units available, each ad only counts as one unit available to rent, same as a small landlord with his one and only rentalhouse. Each of these multiple unit ads advertise properties available for immediate occupancy. In the meantime, any property with a listing on Airbnb is counted in the statistics, whether available now or 3 months from now, whether a family home being offered once or twice a year or a a unit in a aparthotel available 365 days Not one of the hundreds of units in aparthotels, student residences with temporary exemptions to their planning permissions to allow tourist rentals, and holiday homes which are precluded by their pp from being used as family homes, all advertising short term lets, will come back on the residential rental market. People with an agenda have always used statistics to support whatever cause, good or bad, they are backing.

Meanwhile, in D1, near the Point, there must be 500 or 600 apartments almost ready for the rental market… but once advertised they will statistically only add 1 property to Daft rental statistics (or maybe 3 if each property type is advertised separately). Once advertised, these apartments will still be out of reach of the average family or couple, the problem not availability but affordability. Also, allowing owners of homes in holiday villages to get permission for these to be occupied for residential as opposed to tourist use, would bring a significant number of homes into the rental market for families. This change of use is impossible to obtain currently.

We have a holiday rental property and applied to get the planning changed to residential use and it was refused.

Obviously the council don't think there is a housing crises going on.

Anytime I hear of some sort of 'Plan' involving Mayo County Council my mind starts going into overdrive ...

Who started / developed this initiative? ..well it looks like a former auctioneer from Claremorris ..and on the face of it could be of some assistance to reducing derelict sites while offering much needed accommodation.....however..

Why is it only involving the one person who's pushing for this . Through his own developed website ....and what are they getting out of it ?

Why is it not including all Auctioneers.

The reason properties are on a Derelict sites List are numerous and in very few cases will the owners be still willing to sell under this sort of scheme ...so in my view ..this will come to nothing but another "much talk about nothing".

Reading the Local Government Auditors report on Mayo County Council includes a reference to Derelict Site listing as well as much more goverence problems Mayo County Council has to sort out rather than spending taxpayers money and time on this possible White Elephant