Thread by @otrosnosotros

When @CSOIreland 2022 figures revealed 166,752 vacant homes in the ROI, an onslaught of folks played this down.
It’s now Aug 2022, @daftmedia report says “there were 716 homes advertised to rent nationwide” and there’s a meltdown by the media about a rental crisis.
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Information by @CSOIreland highlighted an unmistakable #vacancy problem & reminds us that the CSO’s purpose is to “impartially collect, analyze and make available statistics about Ireland’s people, society and economy”.

@daftmedia purpose by contrast, is not impartiality.

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To understand this better, we must see @daftmedia for what it is: one of three brands within the umbrella of “Distilled SCH”, a “global online classifieds specialist” – a private company whose business is ADVERTISEMENTS.

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So when their reports reveal a low number of “homes advertised” we must remember this represents an advertisement company having a crisis in number of ads on their website, not an objective or complete dataset of actual vacant houses or apartments that could be homes.

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Think about this for a moment: An ad company carries out an analysis of their business, finds they don’t have that many ads and their author concludes that the absurd housing policy relying on rental-only enclaves & bulk-purchase of apartments should be encouraged.

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What seems to happen with every new report is that lobbyists, Irish media & politicians alike quickly jump to wild conclusions and give poor advice on policy based on an advertisement company sharing their struggle to get advertisements on their website.

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The usual commentary follows which is always something like: “we need more rental-only enclaves”, “#BuildToRent is part of the solution”, “opposition to bad policy is socialism”, “deregulation of planning is needed”, “nImBys are to blame!”.

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But let’s get to the facts. To quote Architect Robin Mandal, former president of the @RIAIOnline & chair of @DDPlanningA: “The delivery of housing has never had any connection to the speed of granting planning permissions”.

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With over 39,000 unused granted permissions, many of which are for incoherent densities & proposals thanks to market-friendly policies, what has been achieved is to increase land values, wiping out viability of affordable housing & sustainable development.

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Meanwhile, the majority of large-scale residential schemes that will eventually get built (when the price is right) will be rental-only enclaves. This means schemes of houses, apartments & town-houses owned entirely by pension funds, large real-estate companies, etc.

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They’ll own large chunks of our cities, setting their own rules, bulk-buying thousands of new homes keeping them vacant as a way to ensure costs remain high and lease them back to society at insane costs.

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Think of these 39k unused applications & what it means: idle sites all over the country waiting to either be flipped or developed when the developer find it profitable, not necessary. This is either a deliberate effort to skew the market or an accident, both alarming.

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Those putting together the business plans for new developments don’t really care about Irish society, they’re probably not even malicious people thinking of people as cash cows. They likely see themselves as businesspeople creating products that people need.

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But the outcome is the same: Ireland is captive to the property industry lobby & land speculators; a playground for #AssetUrbanism.

This simply means the gov’s policies favouring rental housing has made social, affordable, cohesive, for-sale homes a thing of the past.

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As is evident from the number of commencements vs the number of permissions for high-density residential schemes, the market will not build so much, so quick as to undermine its capacity to keep and increase their rental incomes.

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It’s been easy for them really: Ireland is a small country, a few million people with a small but attractive cohort of high income-earners to target. They’ve skewed housing for an entire nation turning it into a wealth transfer scheme thanks to policies they helped draft.

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Ultimately, the government has taken measures that end up benefiting institutional property: leased social housing, subsidized rents in BTR schemes, reduced design standards to build less liveable assets, allow bulk-purchase of thousands of homes, lower their taxes, etc.

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https://twitter.com/socdems/status/1529876623188705280

So, while Airbnb isn’t struggling to list advertisements for homes for short-term rentals in Ireland, daft media is. This would indicate people know the situation is desperate but that they’re more likely to rent their place for more money on Airbnb than on daft.

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https://twitter.com/nwl88444048/status/1557698845815054336

This is painted as the exodus of landlords. An event so massive, it can be seen from space.

The hyperbole is remarkable and of course this has triggered tax cuts for landlords, not limits on bulk-purchase of apartments, not a #landvaluetax, not direct-builds by gov.

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https://twitter.com/eosfuturedesign/status/1489357439858360322

Forget @daftmedia’s (very effective) PR stunt & all the nonsense that follows.

We need homes for renters, yes, but an ads website crisis does not mean we need to protect the #BuildToRent typology which was invented to extract wealth & has warped our housing market.

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Focus on solutions needed:

#SiteValueTax, end bulk-purchase of apartments & houses, end #BuildToRent policies (SPPR7 & 8), regulate short-term lettings, end #DerelictIreland & #VacantIreland, join @CatuIreland, end leasing of social housing, restore housing standards.

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https://twitter.com/ocallaghancian/status/1414523856996470785

Take another read at threads like this one where @RobJCurley explains why policy matters, where policy mistakes come from and possible solutions:

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https://twitter.com/RobJCurley/status/1531746992036237313

Or podcasts like this one where @RoryHearne discusses the consequences of the reducing numbers in homeownership with @barratree from @ESRIDublin:

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open.spotify.com/episode/4kqU7M…

Or this one where @UnaMullally & @Mickcliff discuss planning & scandals at @anbordpleanala:

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open.spotify.com/episode/4nYfBN…

Read the crucial reporting from @wereontheditch as they follow & uncover the many and the obscenely blatant instances of improprieties at ABP, active members of government, consequences of cronyism in our built environments, etc.

Get informed!

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ontheditch.com/abp-granted-pe…