A deepening crisis

IF you were a councillor, TD, or minister who lives in Dublin, and you had your own house and other properties for rental, how could you ensure that the values of your properties keep increasing, and also the rents received?

The solution seems very simple: just ensure that all efforts to increase the supply of properties must be blocked in every way possible.

Any politician involved in objecting to building homes should be investigated by investigative reporters.

All of their family members should be included, as politicians would be cute enough not to have rentals in their own names. It is scandalous that politicians who should be caring for the public good are leading the charge against building. It is wellaccepted that most of them will look after themselves before the needs of others.

We now have homes in Dublin which are totally overvalued, and this can only lead to a collapse like before, because mortgages are issued against what should be the real value of homes, not artificially raised values like at present.

Of course, when the downturn arrives (soon!), the greedy landlords will unload their properties very rapidly just before values drop excessively. Meanwhile families will have to stay put and endure terrible negative equity, like earlier this decade.

We still have first-time buyers paying the same stamp duty as investors. They should not have to pay any, whereas investors should have to make up the difference, and this would help to reduce demand and inflation.

If Ministers Murphy and English aren’t replaced soon by ministers who will get something done quickly, we shall soon see riots on the streets. Do they think that people are stupid? They should have been sacked over the debacle with Apple and Athenry, which was a terrible blow for the west. Planning is a sick joke in Ireland, so have the two boys done anything to make improvements? S. Ó DONNCHA, Co. Galway.