O Broin: Housing policy is a failure
SF anger as posh apartments lie empty in crisis
SINN Fein has blasted the Government’s appalling housing record after it was revealed hundreds of plush properties lie vacant across the capital.
New figures show nobody can afford to rent posh apartments in Dublin because the price is sky high.
The party’s housing spokesman Eoin O Broin said: “The incoming government must urgently change the direction of Government policy and prioritise the roll out of affordable cost rental accommodation.”
Prices range between €2,000 and €10,000 with apartments in Grand Canal Dock, Ballsbridge and North Wall Quay all lying idle.
Analysis of the country’s Resendential Tenancies Board by the Sunday Business Post showed The Number One Ballsbridge development in South Dublin has 61 lavish build-torent apartments. all of which are empty.
The cost to rent one of the luxury units is between €3,850 and €5,500 and the apartments have been available since 2018.
Meanwhile, only 32 of 89 properties in the Quayside Quarter block in Northwall Quay are currently being lived in leaving 57 empty.
Rents start at €2,430 and go as high as €5,600.
Mr O Broin said:
“The previous Government’s policy, aided and abetted by Fianna Fail, has not led to any increase in affordable accommodation.
“In fact, no affordable homes have been delivered to date.”
Last week it was revealed the number of young people in Ireland aged between 24 and 29 living with their parents grew at one of the highest rates in Europe between 2007 and 2017.
Figures from Focus Ireland show 4,268 adults in Dublin are in official homeless emergency accommodation and 29,698 are households on the social housing waiting list. As of December 2019 the number of people who are homeless and relying on emergency accommodation in Ireland stood at 9,731.
61 flats are unoccupied in The Number One Ballsbridge building