Ronan Lyons

The market has seen something close to double-digit inflation despite (or on top of) all the increases seen in the previous decade. How has that happened?

New York’s experience with rent controls in the interwar years was – compared to other rent control systems – less painful. Rents were kept in check until new supply came on stream. There is nothing at the moment, however, to suggest that Ireland is following the same route.

Ireland is 13 years into a rental market crisis. Despite eight years of evidence the strategy of capping rents and diverting demand doesn’t work, not a single party has any real strategy for the rental sector.

There is a difference of almost 100,000 homes between the Department of Housing's estimate of the housing deficit and the Commission on Housing's. The reason is the department does not understand what unmet housing need actually is.

By any metric, Nepal is a poor country with limited public services. Yet, Ireland could take a leaf out of Nepal’s book and become literate in land values, writes Ronan Lyons in Kathmandu.

Nobody knows the break-even cost of a minimum standard home and how that relates to the local income distribution. Nor do we measure the number and size of homes people would choose, as opposed to the ones they currently live in.

Since 2020 in particular, the government has thrown a lot more money at the problem, in particular for social housing of various hues. It has done so while also effectively ignoring the growing deficit of rental homes around the country.

When you look at the data, two clear rental trends emerge. Rents in the open market have risen rapidly for a decade. Secondly, rents for "stayers" are also increasing but at a much slower pace than for those moving.

Ronan Lyons is an international expert on housing policy. Here, he argues that Sinn Féin’s policy document marks a continuation of current housing policy, rather than a radical shift.

Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford experienced no significant freeing up of rental stock at the height of lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. But the cities have seen a phenomenal resurgence in rental demand.