The Housing Crisis - What actions would you take to improve things?

Very interesting post @ lff12

Do local authorities talk to each other at all?

For instance, is there any cross council cooperation in the provision of housing?

This, of course, would depend on all local authorities holding the same information in the same way.

How do they keep their housing lists current? Do they rely on applicants informing them when they no longer require housing at all or within their own bailiwick?
 
Start a massive state funded social housing building project, like we did in the 50s 60s 70s we managed to do it when we had very little money as a country, why not now? Get rid of all private landlords, the only landlord should be the state.
 
I think the outcomes of public policy on housing should be the following:

(1) residential rents to halve from current levels

(2) house prices to fall from current inflated levels, by maybe 20%

How that might be achieved, I will post later, too busy now.


See below for data from Eurostat.

The 4,500 to rent a detached house is obviously insane, and needs to fall below the levels in Paris, Stockholm, Bern, etc.



 
I don’t exactly know if it can be addressed but having net immigration figures of around 100,000 a year while we have no surplus accommodation is the real issue here. This isn’t an anti-immigration rant, Immigration as a general concept is fine but this seems mad when we cannot cater for the people here already.
 
"Start a massive state funded social housing building project, like we did in the 50s 60s 70s we managed to do it when we had very little money as a country, why not now?"

Those houses were built with almost slave labour without any consideration or building standards. Good luck repeating that.


"Get rid of all private landlords, the only landlord should be the state."

Private landlords have been exiting the market en masse in recent years. Tell us how that has improved things.
 
blueband said:
Start a massive state funded social housing building project, like we did in the 50s 60s 70s we managed to do it when we had very little money as a country,
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What about the antisocial issues? Why do you think certain areas have certain reputations?

Who pays to meet current building standards? With limited tradesmen they will go to whoever offers the higher wage so prices go up.
 
Antisocial issues will always be with us, thats life. Contract the building work out to foreign companies, give them long term ten year contracts.
 
T McGibney said:
The first time I noticed an incipient crisis was on a day out in Dublin on the day that Osama bin Laden was killed. That was almost 14 years ago.

It's been a full blown crisis for almost as long.
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There are around 10,000 people in emergency accommodation out of a population of over 5 million. Housing costs, as in the average amount of income people spend housing themselves, are amongst the lowest in the EU (mainly due to HAP and other subsidies). We certainly have a big supply side problem. That's caused by State inefficiency and a labour shortage.
T McGibney said:
The crisis has persisted and gotten worse because in the meantime no political or civil service policymaker has only admitted let alone confronted the ugly reality that it was their decisions after the 2008 crash that caused it.
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The same housing problems are evident across much the developed world. Ours should be considerably worse because we have a growing population, our 2008 crash was possibly the most severe in the world and we are an island.

That said the decisions made by the State have made it worse. They then throw money at the problem in order to ameliorate the negative impact of their bad decisions. More particularly the decisions not made are an issue, around reforming planning, having a functioning database showing ownership of land and property, rent controls and the appropriate application of property taxes as a tool to reduce land hording and control property prices.
 
blueband said:
Start a massive state funded social housing building project, like we did in the 50s 60s 70s we managed to do it when we had very little money as a country, why not now? Get rid of all private landlords, the only landlord should be the state.
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The State got poorer in real terms throughout those decades. We had considerable net emigration during that period. It was only when we moved from those stupid policies and started investing in our human capital through education and healthcare that the country started to thrive.
 
Protocol said:
How that might be achieved, I will post later, too busy now.
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Love this! It’s basically the approach successive governments have been taking, right down to the fact that you/they never actually come back with a solution
 
blueband said:
we managed to do it when we had very little money as a country, why not now?
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Because now the local authorities find it significantly cheaper to buy privately developed housing rather than build themselves.
 
Leo said:
Because now the local authorities find it significantly cheaper to buy privately developed housing rather than build themselves.
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And during much of that period we actually reduced the net amount of housing units because we were emptying out multi-unit tenements where families shares a couple of rooms and moving them to newly built council houses.
 
The basic principles of economics & taxation say you should reduce taxes & regulation and increase spending on goods/activity you want to support.

So if I could wave a magic wand I would, with effect from midnight and for all new homes sold (to investors, local authorities, AHBs, or owner-occupiers) for less than €500k completely eliminate:
  • All developer contributions: for roads, connections to electricity, water, public transport, the lot
  • VAT on all elements of construction: materials, professional fees, solicitors fees, literally everything
  • Stamp duty
  • Land registry fees
I would also increase the flat rate allowance for all crafts & labourers in the construction industry by probably 100 times. A labourer currently gets €97, increasing this to €9,700 would seriously increase the spending power of a labourer etc making the job more attractive without costing the employer a penny.

I'd have the state paying at least half of the wages of all apprentices in the construction industry while also increasing 1st year apprentice wages to the minimum wage.

I'd introduce the rent-a-room scheme threshold to €24k a year and enable landlords to avail of it: if your aggregate rental income is 23,999 you pay no tax, prsi, usc, but if you take in 24,001 you pay everything at the marginal rate.

I'd introduce government guaranteed financing for apartment developments, similar to the low cost energy retrofit loans.

I'd make the construction (within certain size limits) of a separate residence in your back garden an exempt development.

I'd make adding a floor to your residential property (up to at least 3 floors) an exempt development.

I'd make it illegal to build anything less than 6 storeys high within the M50.

All this would cost a fortune, but the housing crisis is already costing a fortune. And while it would help developers make millions, developers and their staff/subbies aren't going to work for free or even for cheap to help solve the housing crisis out of the goodness of their hearts.

The one thing I wouldn't do is reduce energy efficiency & fire safety requirements for new builds.

I have difficulty believing the government (or the alternative) have the imagination & will to actually solve the housing crisis or make a serious dent in it within the next decade. Partly because they're so concerned about repeating the mistakes of the past: a risk that's anyway largely mitigated through the existence of the central bank lending rules and central credit register.
 
Again I go back to Prof Michelle Norris seminal essay on financing social housing prior to the 1970s, and the one point which she makes very clear was that for a large proportion of people in that era, social housing took the place of social welfare. Even as late as the early 1990s you couldn't sign on as a young adult living in the family home without having your families incomes counted as means.....which meant that you got zero pounds, zero pence and .....butter vouchers.
Housing was provisioned for some (remember there was a major issue with slum housing that persisted right till the end of the 1960s) in lieu of social welfare. And like today, housing was built as a priority for families, not young single men or women with no children. There were very few small flats (and only flats) built for single people and these were tiny and basic. It might come as a shock to young people who think they should get €244 a week in social welfare AND social housing that if we were to return to the policies of that era they would get no money and no housing, as all the housing would be prioritised for families and the elderly, and they were at the back of the queue until they either had a family or became old.
 
And that was getting married and having a family, not having 4 kids with three different men so that you could get a free house.
 
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