Housing & Planning

‘Massive air of desperation’ among young people at scale of housing crisis

Cork art teacher says she has had to move home with her parents as property prices have gone ‘crazy’

Art teacher Siobhán O’Connor (32) from Rochestown, Cork, says soaring house prices meant young people were unable to get on with their lives. Photograph: Olivia Kelleher
Art teacher Siobhán O’Connor (32) from Rochestown, Cork, says soaring house prices meant young people were unable to get on with their lives. Photograph: Olivia Kelleher
Olivia Kelleher
Fri Aug 16 2024 - 17:51

Siobhán O’Connor (32) says there is a “massive air of desperation out there” among young people trying to find somewhere to rent or to buy, while struggling with the cost of living.

The art teacher from Rochestown, Cork, moved home with her parents after failing to find a somewhere to rent and says her 33-year-old partner, and many of her friends, are in the same situation.

She was speaking in Cork City after a series of reports this week highlighted the continuing housing crisis this week, one showing that prices have risen 8.6 per cent in the last year, another suggesting that the Republic’s demographic growth is hugely outstripping its housing supply.

She described property prices in Cork at the moment as just “crazy”. Ms O’Connor said a neighbour had just sold their house for more than €500,000, having bought it six years ago for €285,000.

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Ms O’Connor said she had to move back to her parents’ house after failing to find shared rental accommodation in the city.

She would like to settle down in her own home and have a family but now questions if this is affordable.

“Can I even afford it? If you asked me 10 years ago, I would have said ‘I’ll have five kids’. Now I don’t know if I could even afford two. My mum was my age when she got pregnant with me and she was able to buy her own house.”

“I love Cork and want to live here. But there is no feasible way that I can afford to live where I grew up.”

[ ‘Massive air of desperation’ among young people at scale of housing crisis ]

She said working for a decade and being no closer to being able to buy a home felt being on a “never-ending treadmill”.

She said the huge pressure surrounding the housing market was starting to filter into dating, and some young people were doing mental arithmetic very early in their relationship to estimate their potential borrowing capacity as a couple.

“‘I know of people my age who would go, ‘oh, he has this qualification, this much money, so combined we could get this.’ That is how desperate people are.”

While she loves her job she said the struggle to secure a permanent teaching role might see her leave the profession.

“It is really difficult with the way the teaching system works. You have to be in a school at least two years and have the promise of a third year before you are given any permanency.”

While she has worked constantly since qualifying, to date her career has been a series of short-term contracts, mostly covering maternity leave.

“I love my job but I am at a point now where I am seriously questioning should I go into admin or office work where I could get permanency in 12 months.”

Ms O’Connor says the inability to make progress means “her life is on hold in this country”, which she finds very frustrating. While she has thought of moving abroad she has so far has resisted as “I am a homebird”.

“I feel like I am on a treadmill. I am running so hard. I am trying get somewhere. But I am physically in the same place.”