Shift back toward landlordism

A place to call home

Sir, – Further to recent correspondence (Letters, July 13th), if my house devalued by 50 per cent or more, I could not care less. It’s somewhere I live and the number the market places on it is irrelevant. I would prefer if it devalued and my children could afford homes, without mortgages that are a form of indentured financial servitude. And I would suggest I am not alone in this.

As for politicians and the political imperatives of housing values, they are more complex. Their interests, to mention just three, might be its impact on GDP (construction and consumption), the solvency of banks and revenue from higher stamp duty, VAT and capital acquisitions tax. The housing and rental market is a combination of Ponzi financing and a house of cards. – Yours, etc,

DAVID CASSIDY,

Dublin 9.