Excellent comprehensive article on Housing Supply in Ireland

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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Housing Supply in Ireland: Perennial Problems and Sustainable Solutions

Bill Nowlan is founder and chairman of WK Nowlan Property, and a founder-director of
Hibernia REIT plc. He is a former Investment Director of Irish Life, then the State’s largest
property developer, and its largest private residential landlord. He served on the Board of
Focus Ireland for over ten years where he established and chaired the charity’s housing
association. A frequent contributor to debates on property-related issues in The Irish Times,
he is also completing a PhD on the funding of social and affordable housing in advanced
economies.



It's a bit long-winded at the start, but stick with it.

It's worth reading the lot, but here are the recommendations:
Set up a Government Department of Housing to co-ordinate the response
Set up a Land Supply Agency to supplement the current market deficiency
Invest in infrastructure to support housing e.g. water and sewage
Reduce the housing standards - we have the highest standards in Europe
Social housing - I don't understand the proposal
Rental - forgive VAT and levies for newly built houses to rent
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Reduce the housing standards - we have the highest standards in Europe
Click to expand...

You got me there. Not for one minute do I believe this.

Here I've seen them go into a green field site and put in the water pipes, sewerage, the electricity, each site with it's own water and esb point and the roads and then they build. I couldn't believe it when I saw that a long time ago.

Apartments are large, each has at least one parking spot, parking spaces are sold here all the time, nothing gets built without underground parking. There is also always a storage area in each building, the apartments are large and well lit, and many many middle class families live in them. Generally built beside public transport. I never hear ever of management company issues. Nor fire wall issues, nor do I see children's bicycles way up on balconies as I've seen in new apartments in Ireland where there is zero storage inside the apartments, never mind separately in the basement. (for your bike, your winter clothes, your spare table).

The blocks I've visited are very well kept, every so often you'll see them doing the renovations if it's an old block, everybody has to pay and there seems to be a bit of whinging about it but it happens because the laws mean people cannot not pay. Also there always seems to be a type of conceirge, I believe generally an older person who gets cheaper rent on ground floor for handling the daily issues, keys, locked out, cleaning of communal areas, watching the post boxes etc.

The worst think of all I've seen in Ireland is the preponderance of storage/electric heating. It should be banned in my opinion.
 
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I think that there is a knee jerk reaction "no more quangos" when some new organisation is proposed. It's not healthy. Sometimes you need a new group to focus on the task in hand. If you read the report, it lists out a vast array of groups involved in housing with absolutely no co-ordination or joined up thinking.

If a Department of Housing were to be set up, it should make it more efficient. If it just adds another layer and leaves every other group in place, it would achieve nothing.

Brendan
 
Hi Bronte

Obviously, I was quoting Bill Nowlan, who I think was quoting Ronan Lyons.

They are referring to new building standards not the old ones. I don't have enough expertise to judge if they are correct or not.

Brendan
 
BB I wasn't meaning you, I realise it's from the article

Fintan O'Toole wrote an excellent article in the Irish Times yesterday, about how come we could build social housing in the bleak forties when we were broke but we cannot now.

I'm very worried about vested interests trying to dumb down already shoddy building practices, as opposed to standards, it seems to me that standards are the least of it. (ref: priory hall thread, the pyrite thread, the longboat thread, what I've seen being built, what I've seen after being built)
 
It seems like there are standards but they are not enforced. Or are self-regulated.
The central problem is that successive governments have relied on the private sector to build enough housing (and infrastructure), while imposing additional costs and red tape, it's not really surprising we've ended up in this situation.
 
On the subject of building standards, interesting article here from Independent:
http://www.independent.ie/business/...opers-will-not-build-apartments-34158854.html

To summarise:
* DLR Council vote for highest "passive" energy rating standard for new buildings
* Apartment standards make it uneconomic to build apartments

Also, can't link as it's paywalled, but an article in yesterday's Sunday Times (I think inspired by recent Volkswagen test rigging scandal) that the Dept of Environment have taken no active measures to assess actual house performance versus BER cert rating.
 
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