The eviction ban

But all of these came later. There were huge problems renting in Ireland before the bubble burst. Only at the very peak,when Ireland was producing 50k units a year, and for a period shortly after that did renting become vaguely tolerable.

I don't agree that there were huge problems renting before the bubble burst. I found it easy enough to find both house shares and apartments (2003-2012). In 2007 I was paying 1250 for a really nice 1 bed apartment in Blackrock (dublin). In 2009 after the bubble burst I got it down to €900 as there were other apartments in the same building available for that. I didn't feel any particular sympathy for my landlord even though it was part of his pension. The previous property crisis was one of buying, not renting. The media was cheer leading the relentless rise of property prices, completely the opposite to now. After the bubble burst, prices were dropping until at some point in 2012 (when I started looking to buy), we bought early 2013. It was relatively easy to buy at that time as there was not a lot of competition, a lot of people still expecting further drops etc, it was also hard to get a mortgage if you were not in a fairly stable job I guess. I am not sure at what point things took off, but it was certainly some point after 2013.

I moved to Germany 18 months ago. Someone from my old company sent me details about a position that had opened up. It's a senior position in the tech industry. I didn't bother applying because they're not allowing remote work and I'd have to move back to Dublin. I can't justify spending three times what I pay here for an apartment that would be half the size. And even with the pay bump, I'd be worse off financially. And that's if I was lucky enough to actually find somewhere to live.

I might move back to Ireland in a year or two,but if I do, I'll have to buy an apartment. It's just not possible to rent in Ireland at the moment. It's impossible to find anywhere, if you do it costs a fortune, and you have no security because landlords can kick you out.

I would be one of the "haves". I'd be in a job close to 6 figures and I can't see any reason to live in Dublin except I'd be closer to family in the west of Ireland. Thing is that Ireland's transport is so crappy it took hours to see them anyway.

Stuff like the rental crises does affect the economy. It'll take longer for it to affect GDP/GNP but it will. Ireland's current economy is based on foreign direct investment. It's based on multinationals like pharmaceutical companies and tech firms. They came because of high levels of education, lower wages than the US, etc. When they needed to they could expand operations for EU countries and stay in Ireland because of the large number of people who came. But they're going to run out of workers. People will make the same decision that I did and decide that Ireland is just too expensive.

Ireland doesn't have natural resources. We don't make our money from mining minerals or anything like that. We make our money from people, from talent. Without them, it will really hurt the economy.

The rents were relatively low, at least compared to now, during the last property bubble. It was the house prices that were elevated. This was due to the fact that it was very easy to get a mortgage at high multiples of earnings. Prices would only remain at 2012 levels if demand remained the same. As soon as the economy improved there was increased demand. People selling their homes will naturally look to get the highest price, they aren't running a charity. We are probably moving to more German levels of home ownership I think, with increased REIT involvement in the rental market making it possible to rent for decades. A property company will not need the property back for their child going to college or whatever, so I would see that as a good thing.

I think this could be a winning strategy and agree with it. I think it is possible to build housing estates/apartment blocks for low income workers to rent and for higher earners to buy or rent at a more affordable rate. I don't think it is a good idea to pack (20%) new build areas with Low Work Intensity Households as we are doing now. The cohort that would benefit from this would be 80% or more of the population. I think FG are trying to be something for everyone and in the end they are really nothing for anyone. They piss off those who pay for everything as they get nothing, the unemployed class are not going to vote for them anyway, we need a "Help the Workers" party, it doesn't exist at the moment.

Ok boys and girls, time for today's fairytale:

Once upon a time, in the far away continent of Europeland, there was a nation called GoodButNotPerfect, or GBNP for short. This was a fair and prosperous land, with one the most equal societies in whole wide world. It had a benign, temperate climate, and was safe from most of the natural disasters that befell other nations, like earthquakes, volcano eruptions, life-threatening wildfires and floods. It had a much envied proportional election system for government and a progressive taxation system. It did have a violent and and poverty-ridden recent past, mainly because of their greedy, oppressive neighbour, Great Brainless (GB for short), which it had successfully overcome. All in all, it was one of the best nations in the whole wide world for quality of life. It aspired to someday change it's name from GoodButNotPerfect to AbsolutelyPerfect, something no nation had ever done in the history of the whole world.

However, it did face some significant problems, like every other nation in the whole wide world. Firstly, there was a shortage of one of the basic essentials, called Units. These Units were expensive items, of various fixed sizes, in a fixed location, but they were a requirement for the people of GBNP to have a happy life. Not everyone could afford to buy one, but there were other options: you could share with your family who owned one or you could rent one from someone. Some people had more than one Unit, they bought a second one as a pension or maybe inherited one from family. A lot of people borrowed money to buy them, from the moneylenders in GBNP. However, GBNP's population increased very quickly in a short space of time, a lot of it due to immigration. This was because it was a prosperous land and people were returning to their homeland or seeking their fortune, but also because of refugees from wars and conflicts in other lands. It was very difficult to produce units quickly enough for everyone, as they were costly and time consuming to make, and subject to a lot of regulation. So, a shortage of Units was the result. It became particularly hard for the people who rented Units to find any, something which we will return to.

The second problem was a group of people in the nations population called The Freeloaders, who expected the nations government to supply them with everything for free, including Units of their preferred size and location, and to run their lives for them so that they had no personal responsibility. This group also reproduced rapidly, in order to avail of more of the nations generous welfare.

The third problem was the opposition parties to the nations government were very cunning and cynical in their drive to obtain power. The main opposition party was called So Farcical (SF for short). Whenever there were plans to produce more Units, they objected and prevented them being produced as they knew this would make the problem worse and make more people angry that the government had not solved the problem. They promised that they would do what no-one else in the world could do, and solve the Unit problem immediately and once and for all. They claimed to have a Magical Money Tree that would assist them. The Pea Brained People party (PBP for short) also always objected to everything without having anything sensible to say. These opposition parties were heavily supported by the Freeloaders.

This tale is about the private citizens of GBNP who owned Units and rented them to people who didn't own any. Most of these owners were good but a small number were bad, and most renters were good but a small number were bad. The bad ones made life extremely difficult and stressful for the other good party, and it was tricky to figure out if you were engaging with a good one or bad one beforehand. The owners who rented paid a large amount of tax every year to the nations government on the revenue they received, sometimes more than their net income, but did so to keep their Unit for sale, or to give to a family member, in future years.

Due to constant and increasing criticism and pressure from the Freeloaders and the opposition parties, the nations government made some very foolish, short-sighted and ill-advised decisions in their effort to solve the Units rental problem, over a number of years. They forbid the owners to raise the price of the rental, no matter how much the input cost rose, the demand rose or the market developed. They created a special committee, the Ruining Things Brigade (RTB for short) which made it difficult for owners to get their Units back in good condition and made their life more difficult in general. They passed legislation which made the renting process more confusing, more difficult, and gave them and their Units less protection from the bad renters. Finally, they closed down a large part of the Unit rental market by forbidding owners from taking possession of their Units for a long period of time, even if they needed to use them. You ask: in the face of all these overwhelming obstacles, why would the owners not stop renting their Units and sell them to people who wanted to buy them? Well, that is exactly what happened. All the owners sold their Units. The people who had enough money to buy Units were very happy, but the people who didn't have enough money to buy and rented instead were very, very unhappy. Now they had to share a Unit with their family or friends. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth by the opposition parties and their supporters, the Freeloaders, who complained that there was now no supply of Units for the people who didn't have enough money to buy them. Sensible people tried to point out that this was the result of all the policies that the opposition had insisted on, and the Freeloaders had wanted. In fact SF and PBP and others like them had said they would go even further with these policies, as they didn't believe the owners should have any rights to their Units, they should be made surrender them to the Freeloaders. However, the opposition and the Freeloaders wouldn't listen, they were too busy wailing and moaning and blaming everyone else in the nation of GBNP.

I wish I could say there was a Happy Every After to this fairytale, but there isn't...

Now, luckily this is just a fairytale, as obviously nothing this stupid or crazy could happen in the real world inhabited by intelligent humans. So I don't want any comments pointing out things people disagree with, it's not real, it's just a simple story!

@BlueSkyDreams wrote:

So the current situation where landlords are selling up might be considered beneficial to this cohort? Lots of flats for sale flooding the market.

reality is putting them in prime real estate is cheaper for the tax payer, you and me.

rents might be more but the supports and services exist in greater numbers there whereas to invest in them elsewhere where they either don't exist or barely exist costs a lot more and dwarfs the rent costs of prime real estate.

anyway such a state sponsored social cleansing program quite rightly will not happen.

if you are moving people deliberately from areas to move in people deemed to be deserving or something similar that is cleansing.

we don't drive the workers out of the cities, what has happened is that we have promoted property ownership at all costs and at the expense of all other options, this means in turn house prices are ridiculous and those who choose to buy a house end up buying where they can aford which is far out.

nobody is housed for free, rent is required to be paid by all tenants of social and other subsidized housing.

we have an accommodation crisis yes but it's not because of the necessary mixed development policy, but because we have not being building council housing meaning the private sector have been left to house everyone rather then just housing those who can afford to use it's services.

it is cleansing.

anyone who is in the city needs to be there as otherwise they actually wouldn't be there, whether you agree with their need or not isn't relevant really.

only the extremely wealthy truely pay their own way in ireland, the rest of us don't fully pay our own way as we receive public services.

bringing down transport emissions can be done by more public transport as well as yes building council housing.

social wellfare tenants aren't paying market rent because they can't afford to, otherwise they wouldn't be in social housing, however rent is still rent whether market rate or subsidized rate.

they have to be housed in prime locations as that is where they live and over time it will show greater participation in the work place from those who would like to work but find it hard to gain employment.

If you want to be accurate, a huge amount of our tax comes through multinationals funneling profits from other european countries. So they're the ones paying all of our way.

Besides I've never had traffic with that kind of argument. A teacher earns less than me and provides more service to society. the same for guards, nurses, paramedics bus drivers and even shop workers. I work in a niche, high skilled job so I get paid more and pay more taxes. Tax returns that I make don't reflect my value to society, just my value to my employer. I save them far more than they pay me.

I think it is a good idea to make sure people who need to work in the city can live nearby if possible. It makes zero sense to me to have people not working living in the city in subsidised accommodation while key workers are having long commutes, or even worse schools/hospitals cannot fill vacancies because of the housing shortage.