"average Dublin house prices should fall to ‘the €300,000 mark" according to Many Lou McD.

Where did all those houses disappear to? If I look out the window there still seems to be plenty of houses in Ballybrack?

"people who have the wealth to live elsewhere"? People who have wealth live wherever they want...thats kinda the point.

Where do the thousands of new houses in Ballybrack go exactly? Maybe pave over Kilbogget park?

Its almost as if there is more demand now than there was back then yet the size of the country hasnt grown.

I do recall someone mentioning to me around that time that they got a mortgage bigger than 100% to cover furniture, fittings etc.

Technically, I understand that the banks were offering mortgages up to 95% of the value of the property, and then also offering unsecured personal loans for another 5-15% for furnishings/fittings etc.

That gave the total borrowings of up to 110% - but deniability that the mortgage technically was only for 95% - when the reality was that the full loan value was indeed 110%

I can see arguments for and against HTB and whilst it is of course inflationary in nature, I think its impact is likely to be somewhat overblown by many. Like as if it was removed the market would crash.

Stats suggest it’s only used in roughly 10% of purchases. It’s also been made largely redundant in the more expensive areas except for 1 and 2 bed apartments due to the €500k price cap.

So in pretty much all of Dublin & Wicklow (probably Kildare/Meath too) every new build 3bed terraced house and above is still being snapped up in no time at all without any incentives at all. There is no shortage of ‘real’ demand and people able to pay current prices.

Well said, the impact of HTB, especially in Greater Dublin is massivley overstated.

People can, and are, paying way over 300k for a home, unaided by the govt & with ease.

10% of overall transactions was my rough estimate so yes higher for new build percentage. Probably more like 20% (6/7k out of 35k new builds).

On your second point - is it that you think the ‘worst’ parts of Dublin should show bigger price differentials to the ‘best’. I.e. Dalkey should be more than twice the average price of Tallaght or whatever the actual figures are?

Not sure how we compare to other countries in that regard but if I’m interpreting you correctly, I’d say you could be right in that subsidies are more concentrated in cheaper areas for both rent and purchase and therefore have a greater inflationary impact there.

Nonetheless I do think it’s telling as to the strength of ‘real demand’ that the most expensive areas are holding up strongly without much gov intervention.

Infill on the over abundance of green spaces in the 70s/ 80s built council housing?

So you clearly think that the social cleansing of the area is a good thing.

Perhaps in 30 years those areas can be tossed and replaced with aesthetics that are more in keeping with the locale than looking like somewhere children used to ride horses through.