A chara, – That “cuckoo funds” are buying up an ever-increasing amount of housing in Ireland is sad reflection of just how effective Fine Gael’s right-wing policies of the last eight years have been.
They not only permitted but actively abetted what the UN has called “the financialisation of housing”. As a result we are now in a situation where citizens are effectively being cut off from the property ladder and rents are going through the roof.
The Fine Gael ethos of “let the market sort it out” was predicated on the erroneous belief that supply would rise to meet demand. That in itself is a ridiculous way to govern when it comes to people’s homes.
However, we now see that any rise in supply is simply being snapped up en masse by large funds.
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With homeless figures hitting record highs – despite some dubious recategorisation, and with house prices still rising and rents skyrocketing – along with the profits of large private landlords, it is clear that right-wing housing policies have been an abject failure.
One might expect some measure of humility and embarrassment from those who abandoned housing to the tender mercies of the free market.
Not from this Government, it seems.
Given the apparent lack of interest of some politicians in doing anything that resembles actual governing, one would wonder why they want to be in politics at all! – Is mise,
SIMON O’CONNOR,
Crumlin,
Dublin 12.