Years of poor housing policies has led to Ireland’s rental sector becoming a European outlier.
New figures from the Banking and Payments Federation show rent has increased in Ireland by 82 per cent since 2010, compared to the European average of 18 per cent.
The report points to a growth in population as one of the contributing factors to the increase.
It says Ireland grew by half a million people in the past decade but only 130 thousand homes were built in that time.
Assistant Professor at Maynooth University, Dr Rory Hearne, argues years of mismanagement within the housing sector is to blame, not Ireland’s growing population ”Government policy has been about allowing rents increase year after year without controlling the expansion of AirBnB in Ireland, the failure to tackle vacancy and dereliction. These are things that do not exist in the same extent in other European countries. We have allowed this because out housing policy has been really driven by the interests of property owners.”
The BPFI’s report dominated Leaders Questions in the Dáil this afternoon, as the government came under fire for its housing policies.
Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath told the house 26 thousand homes will be built this year by the State, the highest figure since 2008.
But Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald says the government is underestimating the issue ”This is an emergency, this is a disaster for families in their real lived lives and your government has dragged your feet. You come in here week after week telling fairytales, make believe. Imagining that your approach is working when it is plainly failing.”
