Ask the next aspiring councillor to call to your door, what is the main topic being raised as they do their rounds? Most likely they will answer either health or housing.
While there are rumblings of change in the health sphere, it remains to be seen if this is an election ploy or delay tactics to ensure the current government ends its term on a positive note.
On the housing front, we have yet to see any light at the end of the tunnel. From a Leinster House point of view, there are plenty of initiatives and incentives available to all types of potential home owners. From a potential home owners point of view, however, the landscape is far different.
The simplicity with which the housing crisis is presented is often frustrating and enraging for those trying to secure a home, get on the property ladder or move on from their first home. Though the picture painted from on high heralds the arrival of enough houses to home most of those in need, the stark reality is that it cannot and will not hit all sectors.
The skew in the amount of houses being built by or built for local authorities versus the amount of houses being built by private developers just doesn’t add up.
Yes, we have an issue with supply of local authority housing and nobody is arguing this case. But we also have an issue with supply of private housing for sale. Tale a renter doing their best to save for a new home. They are being crippled by their rent and so their purchasing power is seriously limited. Those that can afford a deposit and looking at a very limited supply and so very high prices. This leaves them struggling to afford to move and unable to save due to exorbitant rent.
Then, take someone looking to move on to their second-home. The price they will get for their first home will be very attractive, however, they now enter a market whereby there are no new houses to buy, the price of building from scratch is restrictive to the point of being a non-runner, and purchasing a second-hand house may leave them with too much work to do to make it viable.
New private housing is need, however, for developers to take this on in the current economic climate is simply not a runner either.
So where are we left? Developers are not going to take all of the risk, and so building and selling to local authorities makes sense. The government aren’t going to incentivise the private sector to build private homes, and so supply won’t increase.
If we could free up existing housing and bulk up the new private home offering, we would, in turn, free up the rental and first home sector. It makes sense, but maybe that doesn’t matter.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.