‘Even builders’ are leaving the country

THE rise of Ireland’s new ‘absentee landlords’ will have profound social consequences and result in a new wave of emigration, an Opposition housing spokesman warned.

Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan said even builders – vital for providing the housing families need – are leaving the country.

He told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Increasingly, I am meeting people who 10 years after graduating from college or school are still living with their parents and who see no prospect of that ending soon. It is the new norm.

‘This is the consequence of a policy of supply at all costs which does not take affordability into account.’

The Dublin Bay North TD said the chronic shortage of housing ‘is affecting all aspects of social life, the capacity of people to marry, to have children. People who do not move out are not progressing key areas of their lives – they cannot buy homes, they cannot create roots in new communities’.

He added: ‘Emigration is the new consequence of this. People with skills that are very much needed in healthcare, in education, in child-care are leaving.

‘Those who are leaving include the same builders we need to actually build houses.’

Mr O’Callaghan also expressed concern over the absence of detail about REITS. He said: ‘There is no transparency over how these investment funds operate. They are not constrained in the way that everyone else is. Housing policy in Ireland is now a vicious cycle. People want homes but instead the vast majority of supply is geared towards the sort of high-rental properties… which means they can never afford homes.’

Mortgage arrears advocate David Hall said the rental market is now dominated ‘by a new absentee anonymous landlord class of REITS’.

He said: ‘The old staple landlord who could be contacted by phone is gone; it’s been replaced by a PO Box. We don’t control the rental market anymore. It has created an inferno.

‘Politicians and departments can write all the policy documents they like, but ultimately the REITS have more power than any Dáil. The proof of this is in the absence of any effect when it comes to Government policies. Normally if you change things they improve. The opposite has happened here.’

He added: ‘[Funds] are still benefiting from the tax structures. We don’t control REITS; we incentivise them to do what they want.’