Over Half Concerned Govt. Not Doing Enough On Housing

Over 54% of Irish people are fearful that not enough is being done by government to encourage the development of new housing across Ireland according to a recent survey.

In response to an AA Home Insurance survey of over 5,000 people, 54.03% of respondents stated that they were ‘very concerned’ that the current government was not doing enough to develop new homes and apartments. Meanwhile, a further 26.15% admitted that the current government efforts were ‘somewhat concerning’ to them, with just 1.95% of respondents stating that they had no concerns about the government’s planning in relation to housing.

“Between Brexit negotiations, the housing crisis and a range of other issues, the current government have a number of challenges to try to deal with. However, it does appear that housing, or perhaps more accurately the lack thereof, is a major cause of concern among Irish society and there is a strong fear that what is currently being done will not prove to be enough,” Conor Faughnan, AA Director of Consumer Affairs stated. “Ultimately, there’s no single silver bullet which is going to resolve this problem, but it appears the support exists for a greater level of investment in housing if doing so would increase supply or an acceleration of currently planned projects.”

The survey also found that almost three quarters of Irish people view owning a home as a key life goal.

When asked to what extent they agreed with the prompt ‘I feel that owning a home is an important life goal,’ 53.13% of those surveyed stated that they strongly agreed with this claim. Meanwhile, a further 24.97% of those surveyed were in partial agreement with this prompt.

“Home ownership may not be at the top of everyone’s list of life goals, but it does appear to be something the majority of people want to achieve and something which is viewed as an important life milestone. When you take this into account we can say with near certainty that the demand for homes is not going to ease anytime soon and that being able to purchase a property will remain in the plans of many people moving forward,” Faughnan added. “The challenge for Ireland as a whole, however, is to find a solution to the current situation which will allow those who want to purchase property to do so and if the government does in fact fail to adequately invest in development of new properties we could be feeling the effects of the current crisis for years to come.”