Maybe we need something radical and long term.
No, seriously.
Ronan Emmet writes;
A mighty Government agency with effective policies and strong political will has fixed Singapore’s housing crisis and improved the living conditions of millions.
Above is exactly how they did it.
Fight!
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If we emulate this we will have the housing crisis fixed by 2072. Or we need a time machine and start to fix the problem back in 1961…
If you think 3 people sharing a room in Rathmines is bad (which it is), Singapore has tens of thousands of migrant workers from Bangladesh living in 10, 12-bed dorms.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/construction-company-keong-hong-fined-foreign-workers-housing-10285764
Singapore is well-run in many ways, but it really is capitalism run riot – great if you are Singaporean or western, less so for the workers from Bangladesh and Indonesia.
We don’t have racially divided areas but do we have a subtly powerful social class system that the whole urban housing industry sources all of it’s powers..arguably, it controls how quick anything is done in Ireland, this would need to be overcome in the minds of most of us before we attempt anything like those Singaporianites, fair play to them..
It’s not class, it’s hyper-individualistic culture from top to bottom, rich to poor. We’re so fractured and short sighted domestically it doesn’t feel like country sometimes, but a collection of individual foreign merchants, who are here to squeeze money (wherever/whomever from), without any regard for long term consequences for the country or even own children. It’s paradoxical and heart breaking.
I’m sure the video he sent a rose-tinted glasses view of things but there are some good points to take away from it.
The crisis was fixed by building high-rise apartment buildings. We have a severe shortage of apartments in this country. Many people are against the idea of not having a garden. Apartments are not suitable for raising more than one child or having pets.
The housing problem here is complex, there is no easy fix solution and there not seem to be the will to address the problem in a meaningful way.
Without doubt, jobs are the biggest factor in attracting people to an area. More needs to be done to shift jobs away from major urban cities.
they put 400,000 people in 50,000 apartments? what a great solution!! Anyone remember Ballymun Towers?
I’ve never been there, and I’m told its a great city, but those panoramic shots of endless tower blocks looks terrible.
Singapore’s not a good example. It’s a dictatorship. There are elections, but if a district doesn’t vote for the favored party (that’s been in power for generations) that district suddenly finds its water supplies low, its streets uncleaned, its available housing stock given to the families of people who are well-connected politically. The place is nice, but you dare to go against the party in any minor way and your life will be made hell.
Is that better or worse than what we have? Parish pump politics, two cheeks of the same arse getting elected alternately, and an ever worsening housing crisis.
It’s worse. I was there as a foreigner, so life was cushy, but you could see (and worse feel) the government watching you at every turn. Every citizen of Singapore chooses their words carefully when out in public. You really begin to miss the relative freedom of Ireland even if we have crap housing, health care, etc. (Singapore’s got excellent healthcare, but only if you’ve money).
i am not arguing against individual freedoms and rights, it’s an axiom in my books.
My point is balancing individual and public interests. It’s not a novelty concept, we can literally pick-n-chose from international experience, learn from someone else’s mistakes to minimise or avoid our own.
Climate change will violently force us to embrace proper cooperation and care for each other. Better we prepared gradually, built consensus and maximised our chances of survival. Physical survival, not just economic or sovereign. Before nature comes with that “perfect storm” for us.
Granted, it’s a serious undertaking – changing public attitude – but we need to press on with it. imo, of course.
apologies for platitudes, not a writer
People seem to think the Government wants to fix the crisis, the poor agree there is a crisis, the wealthy are quite happy , negative equity wiped out, and best returns in years …
Who do you think has the ear of FF/FG?
Of the 1.6 million-odd households in Ireland (in 2016 census);
1,147,552 are owner-occupier (71%)
143,178 are renting from Local Authority (9%)
326,493 are renting privately (20%)
So *only* 20% are renting – the other 80% are happy with high house-prices, and most of those are ambivalent about sky-high rent.
Why doesn’t the government create an optional pension fund with tax reliefs to fund construction of mixed, rental only developments. Open to both social and private demand, with the monthly rent capped at a given rate. Over the life of the building the income would pay back the initial investment and cover the set interest rate.
Something similar is currently being done with EIIS, so it should be completely achievable.
See Phil’s comment above, they don’t want to fix it. Too many of their mates are creaming it
So the solution is to slap 7.8 people into every apartment in dublin, and force people to save a portion of their earnings. Seems simple enough.
Dublin’s population has almost doubled since the mid 80’s! You cannot maintain a fast growing cities economy and acceptable living conditions/ rents/ home prices without building high rise apartment. What we have in Dublin is a wasteful use of land. It has to change! For the good of the countries people, living standards, mental health, jobs, economy. Time to face simple facts
Didn’t Alan Kelly loosen the environmental regulations in 2016 or so to welcome the “shoebox king of Singapore” to develop around apartments/condos The Point area? Very good to have an application backlog process to gauge demand and build in a sustainable way but condos are just about fine for a single person and it’s hard to avoid a situation where couples are trapped in them, particularly with lack of stability around renter protections in Ireland.
I believe Singapore’s not a good example.