Brendan Burgess
Founder
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This http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/DevelopmentandHousing/Housing/FileDownLoad,26867,en.pdf (document)was published in July. It doesn't seem to have received much publicity ( i.e. I didn't notice it)
emphasis mine
Our economic crisis has a variety of causes. However, over-stimulation of the housing market is accepted as a key causal factor in the scale of the economic downturn.
In a climate of low interest rates and rising incomes, a series of disastrous pro-cyclical policies led to a model that provided unprecedented growth, but it was a growth based not on foreign demand for our goods and services – as should be the case in a small open economy – or the productive use of investment capital to create sustainable employment. It was based on a mirage and a false assumption that the normal rules of supply and demand somehow did not apply in Ireland.
We now know that those rules do apply. We now know the consequences of encouraging people to choose their housing options on the basis of investment and yield rather than hearth and home.
...
Housing in Ireland has been characterised by a persistently hierarchical structure for several decades. This paradigm of housing has private home ownership at the top, with supported home-ownership (tenant purchase of local authority housing, affordable housing) next, self-financed private rented accommodation further down, and State supported rental accommodation at the bottom (rent supplement/social housing tenancies).
This structure and the value judgement that underlies it – which implicitly holds that the tenure which must ultimately be aspired to is homeownership – has had a considerable role in leading the Irish housing sector, Irish economy, and the wider Irish society to where they are today.
Our vision for the future of the housing sector in Ireland is based on choice, fairness, equity across tenures and on delivering quality outcomes for the resources invested. The overall strategic objective will be to enable all households access good quality housing appropriate to household circumstances and in their particular community of choice.
It will neither force nor entice people through fiscal or other stimuli to treat housing as a commodity and a means of wealth creation. Clearly, home ownership will continue to be a significant feature of housing in Ireland and is likely to continue to be the tenure of choice for the majority of households. Policy makers must take account of our current economic circumstances which effectively dictate that State provided housing supports must be prioritised towards meeting the most acute housing needs. In so doing we will allow for a future in which housing services are accessible by a wider cohort of people based on a less stratified model of service provision.
emphasis mine
Our economic crisis has a variety of causes. However, over-stimulation of the housing market is accepted as a key causal factor in the scale of the economic downturn.
In a climate of low interest rates and rising incomes, a series of disastrous pro-cyclical policies led to a model that provided unprecedented growth, but it was a growth based not on foreign demand for our goods and services – as should be the case in a small open economy – or the productive use of investment capital to create sustainable employment. It was based on a mirage and a false assumption that the normal rules of supply and demand somehow did not apply in Ireland.
We now know that those rules do apply. We now know the consequences of encouraging people to choose their housing options on the basis of investment and yield rather than hearth and home.
...
Housing in Ireland has been characterised by a persistently hierarchical structure for several decades. This paradigm of housing has private home ownership at the top, with supported home-ownership (tenant purchase of local authority housing, affordable housing) next, self-financed private rented accommodation further down, and State supported rental accommodation at the bottom (rent supplement/social housing tenancies).
This structure and the value judgement that underlies it – which implicitly holds that the tenure which must ultimately be aspired to is homeownership – has had a considerable role in leading the Irish housing sector, Irish economy, and the wider Irish society to where they are today.
Our vision for the future of the housing sector in Ireland is based on choice, fairness, equity across tenures and on delivering quality outcomes for the resources invested. The overall strategic objective will be to enable all households access good quality housing appropriate to household circumstances and in their particular community of choice.
It will neither force nor entice people through fiscal or other stimuli to treat housing as a commodity and a means of wealth creation. Clearly, home ownership will continue to be a significant feature of housing in Ireland and is likely to continue to be the tenure of choice for the majority of households. Policy makers must take account of our current economic circumstances which effectively dictate that State provided housing supports must be prioritised towards meeting the most acute housing needs. In so doing we will allow for a future in which housing services are accessible by a wider cohort of people based on a less stratified model of service provision.