MAEVE QUIGLEY
DREAM HOME NOW A NIGHTMARE
IN this day and age, you know that you’re lucky to own your own home. It’s a privilege that you pay for in a way our parents never had to. But things can go wrong, and all too often those things will cost more money on top of what is probably a mortgage that is already stretching you to your core.
Buying a house is a big deal, especially in the current climate. The huge price of houses means you are throwing yourself on the mercy of your surroundings, and it’s such a fine balance which can be tipped by everything from noisy neighbours to towering new developments that overlook your backyard.
And it’s extremely stressful when something goes wrong – whether it’s a neighbourhood dispute or a broken boiler.
So imagine waking up one morning to see water pouring in through the walls of your house. Imagine scrimping and saving for years for your dream home to see it crumble to dust, literally in front of your very eyes.
Haven
Imagine waking up to see cracks appearing in your dream, your security and safe haven literally turning to dust in front of your eyes, with no one willing to take the blame or responsibility, but everyone still more than willing to take the money you’re shelling out for that overpriced mortgage.
But that’s what has been happening as mica, pyrite and another mysterious but nonetheless damaging substance cracks open a can of worms for the Coalition, from Donegal and Mayo to Galway and now Skerries in north Dublin – right in Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien’s own turf.
And this seems to be just the tip of the iceberg as the impact of the unregulated days of the Celtic Tiger building boom hits home – and, as ever, it’s the ordinary worker paying the price.
As an unfamiliar virus that shook us all to the core finally seems to be dissipating, a sickness that’s more familiar to Ireland is making itself known again. Successive governments have been struck down by it, and its symptoms last for years, causing excessive and constant wringing of hands but an inability to do anything to solve it.
It has driven some children overseas and left others in limbo, living a half life and unable to plan for the future.
And, despite the fact that a concerted effort and putting the work in to try to stop the coronavirus in its tracks has been effective, successive Housing Ministers seem to be okay with shaking their heads and gritting their teeth when it comes to fixing the crisis that is ours alone.
Just this week, the Residential Tenancies Board reported that landlords are cashing in on the buoyant housing market, putting their rental properties back on the market, which in turn is causing already extortionate rents to soar yet again.
Institutional investment firms being allowed to snap up properties was meant to be the start of some pressure easing, and developers have been allowed to build huge expensive houses for sale in Dublin’s leafy areas, as long as they throw an unfit-for-purpose family hub in the middle of hundreds of houses that will sell for hundreds of thousands.
Areas where people live are being destroyed by monster housing schemes that no one can afford to buy and no thought or care is being taken when it comes to looking at what’s best, what’s needed and where we go to fix this problem.
All we are being told is that it will take time, and more time, but time is something you don’t have when you’re in your 30s and desperate for your own home to offer just a little security to your small children.
Because, like it or not, that’s what buying a house means to us – security. There’s no use in pointing to France or Germany and telling people, ‘Sure, look at them, they’re grand’ after your landlord has given you a month to move out or pay an extra €1,000 – or worse still, after they’ve decided to rent out to a non-existent relative who seems to be happy to pay twice the price you are forking out.
The fear of ending up classed as homeless has become a reality for many on lower wages while those who earn a decent amount find themselves able to have the fancy car, the nights out in nice restaurants and the foreign holidays when permitted – but not the one thing that equals security in the Irish psyche.
For right now, for so many midrange earners, no amount of scrimping and saving will enable them to put a foot on the property ladder and secure a place to put down roots.
Blame
Meanwhile, successive governments sit there wringing their hands, saying it’s something that needs time to fix while no one actually takes the time to fix it.
Instead they start looking for others to blame, like our older generation, who at this stage must be used to being treated with disrespect, like they don’t matter. The so-called ‘empty nesters’, the couple who worked their fingers to the bone to buy a house for their children to grow up in, who are expected to ship out now the kids have left because they have a couple of empty bedrooms. They are being ordered to sell up, downsize, leave the neighbourhood where they’ve lived for most of their lives, the place where they are comfortable, where they can walk to the shop or go for a pint with their pals, the house they’ve worked hard for, that they’ve put their own stamp on.
They are the new housing crisis scapegoats, being made to feel selfish and greedy because they have what someone else wants and needs, when in reality the greed of developers cutting corners on social housing promises is what really needs to be checked.
But there wouldn’t be any money in that, would there?
The coronavirus crisis has taught us all a very important lesson – governments can actually take effective action and solve serious problems if they work hard at it.
But as life starts making a tentative return to normal, cracks are showing in this Coalition. And it won’t be hanging out at the Merrion Hotel that will put paid to its reign.
No, it’s likely to be something a lot closer to home.