Irish Times Article, More than two-thirds of people are living in homes too big for their needs, ESRI research finds.
In 1991 the average household size was 3.34 people. It is now 2.7. With a population of 5 million that means we need 1,852,000 housing units. If we had the same average household size as we did in 1991 we'd need 1,500.000 housing units or around 350,000 less than we have now. In other words due to the reduction in household size we've spent around a hundred billion euro building homes without housing any more people.
I've commented frequently here that the reduction in the average household size over the last 30 years is a major driver in our housing shortage. The reduction in household size alone has consumed around half of all of the accommodation we've built in the last 20 years. My contention is that there's no solution to our housing shortage without better utilisation of our existing housing stock and that can only be achieved with a significant increase inn property tax.
In 1991 the average household size was 3.34 people. It is now 2.7. With a population of 5 million that means we need 1,852,000 housing units. If we had the same average household size as we did in 1991 we'd need 1,500.000 housing units or around 350,000 less than we have now. In other words due to the reduction in household size we've spent around a hundred billion euro building homes without housing any more people.
I've commented frequently here that the reduction in the average household size over the last 30 years is a major driver in our housing shortage. The reduction in household size alone has consumed around half of all of the accommodation we've built in the last 20 years. My contention is that there's no solution to our housing shortage without better utilisation of our existing housing stock and that can only be achieved with a significant increase inn property tax.