Sir, – Paddy Joyce (August 7th) bemoans the proposal from the Society of Chartered Surveyors for the construction of “European-style” apartments for families and my coincidental letter espousing same (August 7th). He cites Tokyo and Singapore (as examples not to be followed), but one need only go as far as Barcelona, Brussels, Copenhagen or any other continental European city to realise that these smartly planned and attractive urban centres have long histories of predominantly apartment-type residences.
Apartments make efficient use of limited physical space by building upward rather than outward. They reduce urban sprawl so distances to amenities, parks and shops are shorter. They have greater heating and water supply efficiencies and more efficient internet connectivity and other technology supply. They are often air-conditioned. They have professional service-managed maintenance and landscape care so residents have more quality and quantity time. In most cases they have better security than houses.
Of course the quality of apartment construction matters for quality of life; dire lack of planning and construction quality and an historical association with slums and deprivation may contribute to reticence in Ireland.
It is because of their obvious benefits that so many Europeans and Asians choose to live in apartments. Of course people should still have choices, but the choices in Ireland for a long time were almost wholly restricted to a house of one kind or other. – Yours, etc,
NIALL O’DONOGHUE,
Pirkanmaa,
Finland
Sir, – Paddy Joyce is adamant that Irish people do not want to live in continental-style apartments, which he describes as “high-rise hamster cages”. I can only surmise that Mr Joyce is not overly familiar with continental Europe or its apartments. Apartments in the continental style are spacious and well-designed family homes with floor spaces easily the equivalent of any mid-density suburban semi-detached. Furthermore, they rarely reach above the fifth floor. Large numbers of Irish people and families want to live in our cities, and not in suburban or semi-rural settings. High-density living is the only way to achieve this and larger, more comfortable apartments are the best method of providing for this possibility. – Yours, etc,
GARRET LEDWITH,
Tudor Road,
Dublin 6
Sir, – Olivia Kelly (August 8th) indicates with respect to Dublin’s housing construction challenge that “the plan to test the interest from developers for council-owned tracts of land has obvious appeal”. Meanwhile this week, Tom Parlon, speaking on behalf of the Construction Industry Federation, again highlighted the ongoing difficulties faced by developers in terms of securing bank funding for construction projects. One better proposal would be for Dublin councils to create a scheme whereby citizens formally expressing a wish to buy property within a certain geographical radius could be linked provisionally to possible future land development within that area. A pool of those demonstrating an active potential to achieve pre-mortgage approval could then each be assigned a housing unit, on a preliminary basis, within a given construction project outlined for council-owned land. Local authorities in the capital will have to become more active in contemplating new thinking with respect to addressing what is now a drastic housing shortage. There is very strong demand within Dublin for homes that simply don’t exist and the extent of this demand needs to be formalised so that funding can become more readily available. – Yours, etc,
JOHN KENNEDY,
Knocknashee,
Dublin 14
Sir, – There has been a great deal of focus, following the recent ESRI report, on whether or not we are in a property bubble and whether further price rises can be justified in terms of economic variables. In my view this is not the real issue. Property prices (and rents) in Dublin are driven by a dysfunctional system, which is characterised by a chronic inability to match demand and supply efficiently at internationally competitive prices. This dysfunctional system produces a “fantasy market” which has already destroyed our competitiveness, which drove our economy onto the rocks and led to us becoming one of the most indebted countries in the world. We have been licking our wounds since 2008 and there are now finally signs of stabilisation. However, property prices are once again moving out of line in terms of value with comparable cities in the UK and other countries and driving up our already high wages and salaries. It seems amazing to me that there is so little focus on solving this problem once and for all. I think it’s time to change the system. – Yours, etc,
RONAN DEIGNAN,
Knocksinna Crescent,
Dublin 18
Sir, – In his letter (August 9th) praising Paul Kean’s criticism of property investors, Matthew Glover exhibits an ancient and, one might have thought, now defunct philosophy when he refers to the “landlord class”.
For some reason Mr Glover assumes this so-called “landlord class” is the beneficiary of some debt forgiveness bounty while others are “getting on” with paying down their debts. In what misguided “power to the people” world does Mr Glover live? The so-called landlord class are the ordinary investors who hoped to safeguard their future by attempting to prudently invest in bricks and mortar.
One might also include holders of a pension in which funds are invested in property and investors in any stocks where property is a constituent of that company’s investment portfolio. Is there anyone left?
I heartily congratulate Mr Glover for his foresight and sacrifice in taking on a smaller mortgage so that he could cope with “unforeseen economic setbacks” (oh for such wisdom!) but he should understand that the debt-forgiveness utopia of which he writes is a merely a figment of his imagination. – Yours, etc,
GEOFF SCARGILL,
Loreto Grange,
Bray,
Co Wicklow