'Housing affordability' has become the dominant topic of Irish political discourse over the last number of years. Regularly featuring in opinion polls as the most important issue facing people, our political leaders have struggled to outline a clear path to solving this housing crisis. With residential property prices having more than doubled over the last decade, we asked some of our local Galway property experts what advice they would have for the government in handling this issue.
Colm O’Donnellan is very clear in his advice: "There has to be an increase in supply of new homes and this can only be done with the provision of more serviced land being brought to the market and that the planning process is streamlined and expedited. The government have to look at the rent pressure zones, which is one of the issues which has created the shortage of rental properties, with landlords selling out.”
Olivia Lynch prefers a muti-faceted approach: “ There is no single solution to Galway’s housing shortage, but a combination of public and private sector efforts is necessary".
"Solving the housing supply shortage in Ireland requires a multi-faceted approach that addresses both short-term demand and long-term supply of property. The Government could improve matters by increasing supply of affordable and public housing across the board and aim to utilise public lands for housing projects and make better use of existing housing that is left vacant and derelict. The whole planning process needs to be sped up and less focus on objections causing delays. Small scale development should also be encouraged by private developers to increase additional supply.”
Tony Kavanagh is looking for decisive action from the government and has a five-point plan which he believes will help solve the problem; Provision of more infrastructure and services such as water and waste systems to service suitable development land; Rezone a lot more land in major urban locations and where services are available or can be provided efficiently; Reform planning system; Encourage institutional investors back into the market both large and small scale to provide accommodation to ease supply issues in the rental market; And create schemes to get large scale institutional investors (pension funds/international funders ) involved and interested in providing funding for the provision of building homes in Ireland.
Kyle O’Brien also identifies a number of elements which can help alleviate the problem, including tax relief and repurposing.
“DNG Maxwell Heaslip & Leonard believe there are numerous solutions which can lead to an increase in the pace of new developments being built, particularly in high-demand areas. Incentivize developers, tax relief, planning support for affordable housing projects. Continue to encourage the repurposing of underutilized properties. Addressing the supply-demand imbalance necessitates increased housing development, streamlined planning processes, and incentives for builders to construct affordable homes, ensuring a more balanced and accessible property market for all.”
Sheelagh McGann of KMS outlines a few options to help: “Increase supply for rented homes, remove rent caps/RPZ’s and initiate the vacant home tax to make processing of the vacant home grant more accessible and less challenging for the recipient”.
Sheelagh would also like to see “the market for ‘right sizing’ improve in the planning sector – i.e. new small development or redevelopment in mature locations for the home owners of larger homes requiring smaller units”.
Pat Callanan says “changes to the planning process are required” if the shortage of supply of housing is to be solved.
Deirdre D'Arcy thinks that “There are a number of actions to be taken to solve the problems caused by the shortage of housing supply which involve a mix of short-term and long-term strategies and the joint collaboration of relevant stakeholders.
“In the short-term, working with what already exists is a starting point and can be achieved by utilising existing vacant properties through taxation and incentivising grants, repurpose vacant buildings, introduce measures to stabilise rents and accelerate construction. Planning and Zoning Laws need to be streamlined in order to speed up approval processes for new developments, government-owned land used to develop social and affordable housing, support alternative housing models such as cost rental schemes and increase government support for first-time homebuyers to help them get on the property ladder.
“Longer term, investment in infrastructure and transport and the improvement of public transport links are required to make it easier and more accessible for people to live outside expensive urban centres while still accessing jobs.”
Martin O’Connor has highlighted that unfortunately demand is currently greater than supply and that trying to bridge the gap will be difficult. He continued: “To streamline the process the authorities need to have services to land that is zoned for housing. There is so much land zoned for development that is land locked and more importantly to mention services are years away from certain zoned lands which restricts the supply of ready to go land. Planners need to focus on allowing blocks of four to five storey units and remove the onus on supplying commercial units in developments in areas where there is already an oversupply of retail.”
