More than a dozen people have apparently slept in their cars overnight at a housing estate in Leixlip, Co. Kildare hoping to compete to buy one of thirty houses up for grabs this weekend.
Buyers began to queue from Tuesday in a bid to secure properties at Harpur Lane near the Dublin border just off the M4.
15 cars containing 19 potential buyers were parked outside the location on Thursday before they were moved on after complaints from frustrated locals.
Two-bed, three-bed and four-bed homes are for sale. The two-bed terraces are priced from €460,000, while the three-bed terraced homes start from €495,000. Some of the homes are expected to start at €530,000.
House viewings are set to take place from 10.30 am until 12.30 pm on Saturday and Sunday, but buyers in the queue expect that the properties will be snapped up within the first hour.
According to the Central Statistics Office, a total of 30,330 homes were built in 2024, a decrease of 6.7% on 2023.
The government has been widely condemned for the decrease, as former Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien and Taoiseach Simon Harris had promised voters that 40,000 homes would be completed last year.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the 40,000 figure was “pure fiction” and a “load of bull”, stating that it was a “trick designed to mislead the public”.
“We have people here who have been waiting for a year, two years, even five years for their first home,” the man waiting in the queue at Harpur Lane told The Journal.
“There is not enough houses being built, and that’s the only way to tackle the housing crisis”.
Estate agent representatives took a list of names from those in the queue, promising that they would “work down the list”.
The 19 people in the queue were told to leave once their details had been taken, as several residents had reportedly made complaints about driveways being blocked.
More potential buyers are expected to queue ahead of the bookings this evening and tomorrow.
Kildare - Leixlip - Harpur Lane - (Cairn Homes)
