Sir, – The current, serious problem of lack of available and affordable rental properties (affecting the employed as well as unemployed) shows no sign of easing.
In all the debate, I have yet to hear how Airbnb may be having an impact. Surely any rational landlord with property to rent will make a sound business decision to maximise his income by doing so through short-term lets?
By so doing he deprives the long-term renter of a property and drives up the cost. It must be well over time to regulate this area or ban it altogether. I cannot believe that this has not already been done. – Yours, etc,
EVELYN MADIGAN,
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Terenure, Dublin 6w.
Sir, – The following paragraph ("Rezoning of industrial lands for housing", Olivia Kelly, August 13th) highlights precisely why the acquisition of land by private individuals or companies is detrimental to the proper planning and development of Dublin and other urban areas around Ireland.
“The rezoning of the hundreds of acres could result in a windfall for land owners whose sites are no longer commercially viable, but who have been unwilling to sell up because of the lower property values attached to industrially zoned lands”.
For no other reason than rezoning, the value of the land held will skyrocket. Why should this be? Can someone in authority explain to me and the rest of the population why rezoning land should, for no other reason than rezoning, cause a multiple price hike in the cost of that land?
What added value has been added by the landowner to justify this additional pricing?
In every other area of endeavour, only when extra value is added by additional improvements will there be a justifiable rise in the price of a product. But not it seems in land ownership for homebuilding. It is a special case which defies the norms for some unfathomable reason and is a major cause, though not the only one, of the excessive house prices currently being charged.
The Constitution does not give an absolute guarantee on the private ownership of anything, but certainly places a deal of emphasis on the common good and not allowing the common good to be affected adversely by the concentration of goods or services in too few hands.
The entire fiasco that is the housing/property market in Ireland starts with the ownership of land for building purposes being held in private ownership. It is time to break that chain. It is time to implement the recommendations of the many reports which have advised on the price which should be paid by the State for land for building purposes in line with the common good and to nationalise building land around urban areas. – Yours etc,
DAVID DORAN,
Bagenalstown,
Co. Carlow.
Sir, – We face a housing crisis affecting a broad spectrum of our society.
It is, and has been, and will continue to be cheaper to buy than rent. A buy-to-let investor can rent to a HAP tenant and make a profit from the Government.
This is so wrong in the long term for a number of reasons. The people took action for medical cards for the retired and the people took action on water charges. We need to take action again. This is for everyone. – Yours, etc,
ANNE O SHEA,
Limerick.
Sir, – Simon Harris commented on the images of homeless children sleeping on chairs in Tallaght Garda station, saying, “Minister Eoghan Murphy is working extremely hard”.
I am finding it increasingly difficult to listen to these assurances from Government spokespeople on this and other crises in this country.
Is it possible that they might change their mindset from working hard to working effectively for the people? – Yours, etc,
MARIE BREEN,
Drimnagh, Dublin 12.
Sir, – Hearing about the huge profits of rental companies and the lack of tenants’ rights on security of tenancy in the face of transient or unscrupulous landlords, identified in Peter McVerry’s comments on “the flow of people from the private rental sector into homelessness”, I would ask: Is it acceptable that a basic human need – such as a home – is treated as a commodity on which speculators seek to make large profits? (“
[ Profits at Irish real estate company Ires Reit more than doubled during the first half of 2018 ]
”, August 4th)?
Do we as citizens, voters, wish the State – that is ourselves as taxpayers, to continue supporting such short-term profiteering by property investors through HAP payments rather than investing adequately in long-term social housing to provide for those whose income falls below the market rental level, as we did in decades past? Some grow fat while the lives of others shrink? – Yours, etc,
INGRID MASTERSON,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – I rise to Michael Deasy's challenge (August 11th) in identifying buildings that may be suitable for housing homeless families.
I nominate the Holy Cross College Seminary on Clonliffe Road in the heart of Dublin’s inner city. Having visited there many times in the 1970s and 1980s I know it has dozens of bedrooms, common rooms, bathrooms, decent kitchens and safe grounds for children to play in. Given the collapse in vocations it is currently used for retreats, meetings and conferences.
Instead of wasting millions on the pope’s visit later this month, why doesn’t the Catholic Church lead by example and use the funds to make the building suitable for homeless families even on a temporary basis till the current crisis abates? – Yours, etc,
ROBERT CHESTER,
Knocklyon, Dublin 16.