Orla Hegarty Profile picture
Architect Asst Professor @UCDDublin @UCDArch FRIAI RIBA ARB opinions my own #Housing #Architecture #Construction #CovidIsAirborne Orla-Hegarty@spéirghorm

Jun 12, 2021, 12 tweets

Why SupplySupplySupply won’t solve the #housing affordability problem

#1 ‘we are doomed to failure if we see it purely as a game of numbers.. lowering the bar to get developers to build tiny, dim, carbon-intensive, socially-isolating, unaffordable boxes’ alastairparvin.medium.com/if-the-uk-buil…

Why SupplySupplySupply won’t solve the #housing affordability problem

#2 most claiming that supply will meet demand (at a hypothetical equilibrium) expect it to take until 2025... which suggests 4 more years of rising house prices
extra.ie/2021/05/04/fea…

Why SupplySupplySupply won’t solve the #housing affordability problem

#3 Speculative developers now have high sales prices baked-in to financing.. if market prices drop they may lose funding, they can’t build & sell at a loss

*this from current apartment proposal in Dublin 7

Why SupplySupplySupply won’t solve the #housing affordability problem

#4 European Commission say it’s not costs that are the problem, it’s a lack of competition

Market is almost closed to new entrants because of high barriers to accessing land & finance ec.europa.eu/info/sites/def…

Why SupplySupplySupply won’t solve the #housing affordability problem

#5 research says ‘dysfunctional housing system, where land-price trap overly dominates’

‘fundamental change required to move to permanently affordable, stable & more sustainable system’irishtimes.com/news/social-af…

Why SupplySupplySupply won’t solve the #housing affordability problem

#6 ‘additional 1% housing stock expected to lower house prices (& rents) by around 1.5-2%, all else equal’

In Dublin an extra 5,000 new homes may cut €350,000 price by €5,250-7,000
housingevidence.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…

Why SupplySupplySupply won’t solve the #housing affordability problem

#7 supply of residential property ≠ supply of housing

In London ‘score of flats lie empty’

(Dublin already has high vacancy rates in new high-price build-to-rent developments)
theguardian.com/artanddesign/2…

So SupplySupplySupply won’t solve the #housing affordability problem in a speculative property market

Supply needs to be:
🏠affordable -related to incomes
🏠scalable -not limited by high public subsidies
🏠sustainable -affordability for long term housing system, not 1st resident

Why SupplySupplySupply won’t solve the #housing affordability problem

#8 In 2006, 90,000 new homes were built in Ireland & house prices didn’t drop

House prices fell during 2008-13 in a fire sale following a financial crash, caused by property speculation (pic @finfacts)

Why SupplySupplySupply won’t solve the housing affordability problem

#9 Market prices are now being driven by ‘unprecedented amounts of global capital invested in housing as security trading on global markets’
-UN Special Rapporteur Letter to Ireland 2019 ohchr.org/Documents/Issu…

Why SupplySupplySupply won’t solve the housing affordability problem

#10 Market prices are not in the main driven by construction costs (current difficulties with pandemic & Brexit aside)

As evidenced by sales prices of private developers outside Dublin <€212,000 3-bed houses


PS #1 economist PJ Drudy
“In Dublin, multinational landlords acquired considerable numbers of apartments, free of capital gains tax, during downturn & now charge rents far beyond means of most. Such landlords have, in effect, an anti-competitive monopoly”
irishtimes.com/opinion/housin…

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