General election 2020 (4 Viewers)

[egg_]

The solution to housing is relatively easy - borrow a shit ton of money and build houses

I don't think it's that simple. Would you say there are any developers in Ireland atm that are not churning out houses as fast as they can? I would say no.

I know there are hotels being built in the city centre, but it seems to me like building a hotel and building a house require different skillsets, and you can't just shutdown hotel building and expect houses to spring up as a result.

And if the state just buys already-built houses, that's just more demand and will drive prices up further ... and if they do as @Lili Marlene suggests and remove incentives for property-as-investment then you risk drying up supply in the rental sector.

This is complicated shit lads. The government of the day is only one small piece of the puzzle

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

McWilliams says land hoarders are to blame

 

[jonah]

Kate O'Connell & Lisa Chambers gone. Are they getting rid of all the lookers in the dail?

I'm sorry but do you really sit back and think "hey I have something valuable to add to this conversation" when you post this absolutely non interesting, non funny bullshit?

 

[egg_]

Bríd Smith? Oh good lord. I wish she was on someone else's side

 

[xsteox]

Prediction for here. All a guess though.
Pascal Donohoe(sure thing)
Mary Lou (sure thing)
Mary Fitzpatrick (most likely)
Garry Gannon (possible, came close last time)

Ugh.

Called it. Majority of my preferences got eliminated though.

 

[sleepy]

That's quite the perspective.

Have you ever heard someone say something so stupid with such confidence that it makes you question your perspective on reality? I had 1 of those moments.

 

[sleepy]

It seems common enough to fret about what the 1916 leaders might think about the latest developments

That cropped up during the abortion referendum. I mean it doesn't really matter because they're dead.

 

[Kermit McDermott]

I'm sorry but do you really sit back and think "hey I have something valuable to add to this conversation" when you post this absolutely non interesting, non funny bullshit?

I'm working on my woke-ness

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

1 - Mary Lou
2 - Paschal
3 - Neasa
4 - Gary

I got the new pals I wanted, which is all that matters really

 

[dudley]

Greens doing well on transfers, have hit double figures. I'd say there's at least a couple more to come

 

[hermie]

Greens doing well on transfers, have hit double figures. I'd say there's at least a couple more to come

That last one was in my constituency. Joan Collins got in as well. Delighted.

 

[hugh]

That last one was in my constituency. Joan Collins got in as well. Delighted.

Excellent. Let it be noted that I called it at 1:19pm today earlier in this thread.

 

[Kermit McDermott]

My #1 got her seat. Catherine Murphy SD.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

I don't think it's that simple. Would you say there are any developers in Ireland atm that are not churning out houses as fast as they can? I would say no.

I know there are hotels being built in the city centre, but it seems to me like building a hotel and building a house require different skillsets, and you can't just shutdown hotel building and expect houses to spring up as a result.

And if the state just buys already-built houses, that's just more demand and will drive prices up further ... and if they do as @Lili Marlene suggests and remove incentives for property-as-investment then you risk drying up supply in the rental sector.

This is complicated shit lads. The government of the day is only one small piece of the puzzle

You’re right, it's not that simple, but building apartments is the same skillset as hotels (houses are definitely different, with their own set of GCs and subcontractors)
But the govt has the power to encourage growth in any sectors it deems worthy. It can reduce height restrictions in places that make sense, drop VAT on materials for housing, increase funding for trade skills – perhaps using a tradeoff where the union subsidises overtime. And lots of other things I can’t think of.
The company I work for builds public housing – but it’s expensive. The last one we did was well over $400k per housing unit. That’s a lot of money to take a single name off the list, but once the political will is there, it happens.

Part of the reason we build this stuff – we don’t particularly want to – is that we need a good relationship with the local authority because they make it easier for us and our other clients to build hotels and offices and resi towers for rich people.
My point is here, is that once investors, builders and unions know that it’s a government priority, they will work to grease those wheels. That said, this country is lousy with money, so it might not be one-size-fits-all.

Buying already built houses doesn’t seem like much of a solution to me, agreed on that.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Ah it's a macro problem, financialization in general. The simple answer is you have to have a government willing to say no to letting the markets decide everything. Lest we forget, Ireland on paper is doing great, we swallowed the austerity measures and have been rewarded with 5 years of strong GDP growth, proof that the system works!

I'm gonna read Grace Blakely's book (awful, awful cover) and get back to you.

There's also a long piece about it here: The Financialisation of the Housing Market – Ann Pettifor

Interesting prediction of the problems that arise:

Second, rising intergenerational tension – between those safely housed, and the millions that are not – leads to social unrest and political instability.

Nice one

I'll read this too

Why building more homes will not solve Britain’s housing crisis | Ann Pettifor

The problem of inflated prices lies not in shortage of supply but in property speculation. That’s what we need to clamp down on, says Ann Pettifor, director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics

www.theguardian.com

The Economist of all places had a cover story saying our relationship with property was broken and an economic negative
They are getting fierce Trotskyist lately

 

[pete]

I grew up in a corpo house. Tens of thousands of them were built when the country wasn’t exactly an economic powerhouse. I am a simple man and I don’t understand why we can’t do that again.

 

[magicbastarder]

as has been pointed out on twitter, this is more likely from GP/lab transfers than FG, so probably a false dawn.

arse. FF benefitted hugely from the FF transfers, so PBP out.

 

[egg_]

How were all the local authority houses built in the first place? Did the state/corpo actually employ builders? Or did they hire developers like @7 - No tomorrow 's crowd?

 

[Lili Marlene]

That cropped up during the abortion referendum. I mean it doesn't really matter because they're dead.

I tried that as my pro-choice argument against some pro-lifers who came to the door.

 

[Lili Marlene]

No I didn't.