Irish households spent €4.2bn on rent in 2022 (+10% YoY). Given high inflation, the real increase was +1.9%. However, if the number of available rental properties is declining then this cost is borne by fewer households, most of whom would have seen negative real wage growth.

New Irish housing completion data out 🏘️. We seem to have hit a plateau of around 30k new completions on a 12mth basis. Data suggest completions in 2023 will dip to around 27k; versus 30k in 2022. However, there is still a lot of noise in the data...

How has the housing situation of young adults in 🇮🇪 changed in a generation? In 1991, the majority of people owned their own home by the age of 26. By 2022, it ⬆️ to 36. 4 out of 10 25-34 year olds still live with their parents, & half of those that don't are in private rentals.

I was happy to speak to Rory Hearne on the Reboot Republic the other day about the new Housing Europe report 'Delivering on Housing in Ireland' - give the podcast a listen 🎧 You can read the report itself at: housingeurope.eu/file/1177/down…

The idea, as implied here by the Taoiseach, that there exists a credible wording for putting the right to housing in the constitution that would lead to anyone who isn't happy with their housing situation suing the state & winning cash settlements as a result is beneath contempt

To say that I am sceptical of this new proposal to allow private developers build cost-rental housing would be a serious understatement. This open-ended wording on "funding costs" is begging to be exploited (Company A owns Company B. B lends to A at inflated interest rate).

New report out today from my colleagues & I at Housing Europe. We look at the issue of vacant housing in Europe, and put forward a menu of "supportive" and "dissuasive" policy tools to deal with the problem. Vacany is complex, but action MUST be taken 🏘️

Some worrying signals from the construction sector. The latest Construction Sentiment Index from the EC (August '23) shows that sentiment is below the long-term average in almost all countries, and strongly so in a number of cases! No clear reason provided for this 🤔

Europe needs additional housing, and lots of it in the cases of many countries. Despite this, more and more warning lights are flashing on the dashboard 🚨, telling us that we look like we will providing less new homes in the near future! We know who will feel this shortfall most

It was great to have a chat with Ciarán earlier for the Ciarán - Crazy House Prices podcast. I tried to put forward some policy tools that Ireland could look at to deal with it's housing issues. Lots of info on vacant housing, and better regulations. Give it a listen 🎧

Good that the 🇮🇪 Govt is following best practice, using utility bills to detect vacancy. But, the ease with which you can avoid detection, the number of loopholes, and the low tax rate all mean that the impact will be very limited. This seems intentional. businesspost.ie/news/revenue-u…

Hamas says it would release all Israeli hostages in exchange for the #Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. But what do we know about these imprisoned Palestinians? A thread 🧵 1/25 #Palestine

the FT editorial board calls for a ceasefire: “Israel’s collective punishment of the 2.3mn people trapped in Gaza — almost half of them children — must stop” ft.com/content/4668c6…

Delighted to be speaking this morning at the Cymdeithas yr Iaith event in Cardiff on 'The Right to Adequate Housing'.

"Subduing"? Shame on the journalists responsible for this headline, and shame on RTÉ News