Interesting Housing Survey

He concluded “The emerging nations of Eastern Europe and Asia would do well to avoid these mistakes by allowing the market to provide the best housing possible, built where people want to live. There’s no reason to do otherwise.”
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Um, I think our old pal Minister Cullen did just this recently in Ireland, hence the explosion of one off bungalow blight all over the country. Most people who care about planning and the environment would strongly disagree with the author's suggestion of allowing a free-for-all.

While one of the main thrusts of the argument is undoubted, i.e. that Irish and UK properties are not great quality, I think the authors put a distinctly American/Antipodean slant on things, almost equating small property size with poor quality. Yes, most Irish houses are built to standards that would not be accepted on the Continent, but slating them just because they are not an average of 2,200 metres makes no sense. Size isn't everything as they say!
 
i agree with some of your points. The last thing I want to see is cities like Dublin spreading out for miles and miles. We should be builing larger inner city appartments, and building them higher.

We have really let ourselves down as far as standards go. Developers have been allowed make large profit with little responsibility.
 
I would like to point out thare is a lot more land available in the US, Australia and NZ than in Ireland & UK. If you do not want to live in a small appt in New York, you can go live out west - lots of room!
 
Builders are getting away with selling tiny apartments in the city centre with hardly any storage because buyers walk into the showapt see the flat screen tv taking up half the living room and go 'cool tv!'
 
Look at our planning laws. Believe it our not, the min size for a 1 bed apartment is 38 sq. m - I'd say prisoners have more room!!! A development was recently pulled by An Bord Pleanala in D4 because the builder tried to sneak in 35 sq. m apartments. This compares with 70 sq m in Denmark as the min size for a 1 bed apartment.

The giovernement needs to lead the high-density building rather than the builders. Build at public transport hubs and avail of existing and future rail infrastructure to avoid the mistake of the 90's, particularly in Dublin.

Builders have been allowed dictate what they want to build. In terms of quality, cavity block construction is going to really hurt, particularly when the energy directive kicks in. I'd agree that quality is not just the standard of the finish and energy performance, but also sustainable buildings where people can raise families. Anyone seen 3 bed apartments that you could raise a family in? That's where we differ from the Europeans - pack 'em in and stack 'em high doesn't always work.
 
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