Thread by @otrosnosotros

Costs of existing houses & apartments for purchase in Dublin are extortionate.

What is equally incredible is the amount of work many of these potential homes need.

Sure, many are liveable & have good locations, however most will require new owners to sink extra €€€.

1/22

Take this B3 BER rated home in Harold’s Cross advertised at €695,000 for example:

The cost per sqm for this house is over €5,000. If you were to consider renovating this house for a conservative figure of say €800/sqm, you’ll need an extra €100k.

2/22

Let’s see Phibsboro:
€350,000 for 65sqm, E1 BER (€5300 per sqm)

Same deal: upgrade windows,replace floors, new kitchen, bathroom, paint, at a dubiously low figure of €800 and we’re looking at a property that will send you well over €400k.

3/22

Dublin 8 apartment:
€350,000 for 74sqm. BER B2. Built in 2008, has a balcony and is dual aspect! The luxury!
Renovating kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, fixtures will likely send you into the €400k mark also...

4/22

One more, this time in Cabra:
Great big site, no bathroom photos 🤔 advertised at €350,000 for 62sqm.

You’ll be needing minimum 400K to make this home your own.

5/22

All the “redecorating” prices above are very conservative. Anybody who has or is currently doing works to existing houses / apartments knows it is common to find expensive surprises whether in M&E services, Energy performance upgrades, damp issues, etc.

6/22

So where am I going with this?
I think we need to discuss the difficulties that society will face to achieve homeownership.

Firstly, we need to build new homes for purchase by households such as apartments and other urban typologies like townhouses, duplexes, etc.

7/22

This is part of the problem with rental-only enclaves like #BuildToRent.

Investors know people are looking for new places to live that are not old, expensive or both so they are banking on this need by hoarding land to develop new “a-rated shoeboxes with wifi & a gym”.

8/22

If most viable land is bought and developed in this manner, what will happen is new houses and apartments available for purchase will cease to be viable forms of development. Existing houses & apartments will continue to get old, deteriorate & become harder to live in.

9/22

Moreover, the government will see an increase in households that will require subsidies to keep a roof over their heads in the form of HAP, leased social housing and other supports.

This is just a waste of taxpayers money and it inflates costs.

10/22

Without actually controlling how many new homes being built can be purchased by investors as rental investments vs purchased by households to live in, society faces an impossible market.

11/22

Building the amount of housing needed for today’s households looking to purchase new homes could easily take a decade, this is a problem already.

Everyone looking to rent faces the same problem... rent old & expensive, inadequate & barely affordable or new & expensive.

12/22

The only way this mess will be fixed is by ensuring people currently renting but looking to purchase can find homes that are affordable, cheap to buy & renovate or new & ready to move into, they must be in good locations with urban & social infrastructure.

13/22

This means schools, drainage, parks, markets, entrepreneurial activity, public transit, theaters, urban centres, cycling infrastructure, nature, allotments... i.e. well considered & fully equipped built environments serviced & under management of strong Local Authorities.

14/22

To achieve this all new housing schemes must allow people to buy into them, to build equity and invest economically & socially in their neighborhoods. Investment developments put too much pressure on salaries and leave no money or energy for local activity.

15/22

Today we have neighborhoods where few can afford to buy a home while the rest simply pay rent to support a global economy based around rental real-estate portfolios. Meanwhile taxes are used to service & improve areas that these investors have captured or pay their rents.

16/22

What seems to be a slow death is actually happening extremely fast & we must change course.

We’ve all seen and heard stories of people struggling to buy or rent a home. This is not going to change with our current policies, these challenges will only become harder to fix.

17/22

Housing schemes being proposed rarely adhere to Development Plans drafted by elected reps. Instead they adhere to juicy Policies enacted by the Minister for housing, drafted by Institutional Property lobbyists and are bulk-bought by funds.

18/22

That’s a huge problem. It’s a global problem in fact. But Ireland’s small market has been easily captured and society’s ability to change things through protest is basically non-existent so we are really one of the best case-studies for #AssetUrbanism

19/22

Until those in power & the usual suspects see that many of us in the industry see these issues & criticize bad policies with the purpose of helping make changes to improve society’s chances through policy we will continue seeing them demonizing others & sowing division.

20/22

It will be a difficult second term for the current government but it will be even harder for any new government to enact the needed changes. As a society, we can reject half measures too mild to make a difference & get informed to demand better.

21/22

#AssetUrbanism #NotAllSupplyIsGoodSupply #BuildToRent #Urbanism #HousingDisaster #HousingPolicyCrisis #LessBadIsNoGood #Architecture #RightToHousing #AbsorptionRate #Homeownership #HousingCrisis #HomesNotAssets #UrbanCrisis #OwnershipCrisis

22/22