The housing crisis is one of the most enduring and most intractable issues the current Government has had to deal with. It is also a crisis that successive governments that came before this one have had to deal with.
There have been few, if any, successes.
Tens of thousand of people are on social housing lists, rents are going through the roof, the supply of rental accommodation is a fraction of what it needs to be, with hundreds of people scrambling to get almost every house that comes onto the market.
For people keen to buy there are other problems. House prices have gone through the roof in recent years, availability has gone through the floor and – in recent times – the cost of home loans has sky rocketed with the European Central Bank rising rates by 2 per cent in recent months with more interest hikes coming down the tracks in the weeks ahead.
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They are the problems, but what are the solutions? Or maybe a better question is, are there any solutions out there?
In The News talks to TU Dublin Academic and housing expert Dr Lorcan Sirr about what might be done to solve the housing crisis in Ireland.
