A chara, - As a young man renting an apartment in Dublin for the past three years, I have decided that the time has come to try to buy my own home. I have visited a few auctions recently and I am shocked at the hugely inflated prices of property on offer. One of the reasons for this is that prices are being pushed up by people buying the properties as a valuable investment yielding enormous rental incomes. Young people who don't own any house or apartment (like myself) are being priced out of the market by well-off people who own several.
The government has a responsibility to ease the plight of people who are trying to buy their own home. I propose that people who already own a home should have to pay a substantial tax if they purchase an additional residence. This would ease some of the demand in the house market and make house ownership cheaper and more attainable for all people. - Is mise, Padraig Kelly,
North Circular Road, Dublin.