Sir, – The breakdown of costs to build a three-bed semi is very revealing (“What does it cost to build a three-bed house in Dublin? Here are the numbers crunched”, Business, October 21st).
It shows that land costs are the single biggest cost item at €89,000 per site.
I note that site development and siteworks are separately listed as additional costs.
Bearing in mind that an acre of agricultural land costs an average of about €15,000 per acre, enough land to provide about 20 sites, it is obvious that the current land zoning system is a major barrier to affordable housing, allowing cost increasing speculation by private individuals, to the detriment of the common good.
A bare site should really only be costing €2,000 to €3,000.
I would expect the next Government to have to address this anomaly, as the current Government has spectacularly failed to deal with this cost increasing speculation in the current Planning Bill. – Yours, etc,
DAVID DORAN,
Bagenalstown,
Co Carlow.
Sir, – On listening to the opening salvos of the coming election, all political fire is aimed at who can promise to build the most houses the quickest at the most affordable cost.
However, on reading Eoin Burke-Kennedy’s article “Building a two-bed apartment in Dublin now costs almost €600,000″ (Business, October 21st), it is obvious to everyone – save those fighting the coming election – that a solution to the housing crisis is unattainable within the present policies and cost structures.
Should one step back from the crisis, it becomes clear that the solutions are not in the gift of the next elected government but rather with local authorities, not based on accomplishing future building targets but rather recycling existing dwelling permissions, and most importantly seeing a bigger picture of the Ireland that makes social sense rather than targeting conceptual economic growth figures.
At the above price, the cost of purchase, servicing the mortgage, basic living costs, not to mention single-digit inflation, there are only five possible outcomes: (i) only double high-income couples may apply for mortgages; (ii) continued repayments will be dependent upon living recession-free for about 35 to 45 years, with the dark shadow of repossessions being a persistent menace; (iii) our financial institutions may once again have relatively few clients holding a worrying high ratio of negative equity debt – and once again be at risk of causing the economy to collapse; (iv) public finances will be continually under pressure to clean up the mental and physical strain encountered by swathes of defaulting mortgage holders; but most importantly (v) the high cost of building can be directly attributed to one political factor alone: the hollowing out of our towns and cities, a cost completely overlooked by all political players contesting the election.
David McWilliams highlights how “Dublin’s O’Connell Street has just one resident left: ‘What the area lacks most is not guards, it is people” (Opinion, October 19th). Unfortunately, this sad state of affairs is not confined to O’Connell Street; it is prevalent in every Irish village, town and city. Gone are the days when social stability was reflected in several generations of a family being identified with the one building, and close-knit communities highly invested in their streets and neighbourhood.
Having future generations condemned to isolation in apartments – with their only function being the profitability of faceless financial brokers – should have no place in any election manifesto.
A simple solution is to look at the planning permission structure – not present problems nor future procedures, but rather a baseline for all planning permissions historically granted. Planning permissions acquired for dwellings and family businesses were granted for just that, a place to run a family business and accommodate a family above the shop. Those original permissions were never granted for storage or vacant space.
Put a penal tax on all buildings which have deviated from their original “dwelling permissions” to storage or vacancy, and, like car insurance and private health insurance, make it mandatory for insurance providers to offer policies on buildings which once offered families insurance while living above a commercial business.
Future solutions, and there are many, depend on villages and small towns to reestablish their roots and identity in culture and family-based communities.
The future government may need to do more thinking and less building. – Yours, etc,
CIARAN WALSH,
Gown,
Co Cavan.
Sir, – The housing pressure is largely in Dublin and our bigger cities.
In the past, in a less critical time, we tried moving more public and semi-public services and organisations to rural areas.
Why don’t we put some more effort into this now?
The Public Service Transformation 2030 Strategy has, I believe, improved public services but it doesn’t address the problem of accommodation for staff in the public services in Dublin.
A house can be had in a rural town for a fraction of the cost of one in the city. – Yours, etc,
SHEILA DEEGAN.
Dublin 3.