City councillor says housing crisis has damaging impact on every generation

By
Michael Malone
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Galway Daily business Galway house prices increase 2.1%

New CSO figures show that house prices are spiralling out of the reach of ordinary workers, according to Social Democrats Councillor Owen Hanley.

The Galway City Councillor says that house prices in October increased by 13.5% – the highest rate of increase in six years – and a further increase on the 12.5% spike seen in September.

Cllr Hanley said that these figures are further evidence that house prices are ‘spiralling out of the reach of ordinary workers’.

The housing crisis is a having a damaging impact on every generation.” Said Cllr Hanley. “It reduces your ability to plan for a family or retirement.
“We have young people in their 20’s and 30’s unable to move out of unaffordable rents or move from the family home.”
“The long-term effects on the inability to buy your own home is not being taken seriously enough.”

Cllr Hanley said that Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien repeatedly states that he wants to restore affordability to the housing market – but he asked, ‘where is the evidence of this?’

“The housing market is red hot – and the Minister’s policy proposal to address this inferno is to pour more fuel onto the fire,” said the Social Democrats councillor.

“The CSO figures show our dysfunctional property market is getting worse, not better. Ordinary workers can no longer aspire to own their own home. Many, cannot even afford to rent given the astronomical prices being quoted.”

“My fear is that the situation will deteriorate even further when the Minister’s ill-advised Shared Equity Scheme commences, given a similar scheme in the UK was shown to fuel house price inflation.”

“It’s not too late for the Minister to abandon this hare-brained plan and focus on a measure that we know will work to alleviate this dire situation – a determined State intervention in which public homes are built on public land.”

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