The future of our housing market is at the mercy of international tariffs and trade wars due to the government’s over-reliance on institutional investors, according to Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne.
Deputy Hearne, the party’s Housing spokesperson, said:
“Today’s MyHome report on the state of our housing market paints a stark picture of how the industry’s future will be determined by international affairs in the absence of proactive measures domestically to ensure its health and sustainability.
“The binary it presents is a grim one – recession conditions brought on by a trade war may make housing more affordable, while a resolution could see house prices inflate even more than was once believed.
“This is a lose-lose situation as increased tariffs would lead to a reduction in private housing supply and worker income, rebuffing any hopes of buying becoming more affordable, while an end to tariffs and a return to the status quo of unending inflation takes the dream of owning a home even further from the grasp of a locked-out generation.
“This outlook could have been avoided – our market is so reliant on private sector funding and institutional investors that it has become incredibly vulnerable to these kinds of external disruptions.
“If successive governments had focused on building social and affordable housing, the market would have gained the resilience necessary to weather international economic shocks like the ones we’re seeing now.
“Without a complete change of tone and vision for the future of this sector, we’re doomed to face the consequences of volatile nations’ decision to war with one another.
“Irish house prices are now eight times the average income of €51,000, their highest since 2009 – Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil housing policy has plunged this crisis to new lows.
“Just 10,800 homes were for sale on MyHome in March, another depressing record – supply and costs are out of control.
“Scaling up the delivery of affordable homes through local authorities and not-for-profit housing bodies is the only way to reassert control on the housing market.
“There are now 15,378 people living in homeless emergency accommodation – 4,653 of them children – while 115,425 households are in need of social housing.
“Given that only 2,119 social homes were built in the first nine months of the year, it is blatantly obvious that the 2024 target of 9,300 will not be reached. It will be the third year in a row that social housing targets will have been missed.
“The government’s refusal to see sense has left us at the mercy of conflicts we cannot control – an emergency response is needed now more than ever to pivot focus towards social and affordable housing.”
April 8th, 2025