There’s no doubt that Ireland has a housing crisis. There’s simply not enough homes for our growing population.
The government plans to build 300,000 homes by 2030. But are the right homes going to built in the right location to suit people’s needs? Or are they just going to get thrown up anywhere to meet the target?
When I talk to my colleagues at work I hear a common story. Whether they are trying to buy or rent a home for their family, none of them can afford to live in Dublin city. And these are people who are on above-average salaries. The scarcity of available homes drives sky-high prices, which in turn forces people to move further away.
And while living outside of Dublin might be less expensive, there are other costs at play here. These colleagues end up paying an awful lot of money to keep a car on the road, or else spend a lot on public transport – for those who are lucky to be served by a train, tram or bus.
And there’s also the significant cost to them in time. Their commute times are often very long, and as such they have reduced time to spend with their family every day, and they feel less motivated to join in with work social events after hours because of the difficulty getting home afterwards.
Many of them would dearly love to be able to live in the city. They would love to have amenities such as shops, restaurants, bars and cinemas within walking distance of their home. They would love to have a short commute. And they would love to have the option other than to drive absolutely everywhere.
But the lack of affordable housing in the city that locks them into car dependence. They don’t have the choice to walk or cycle to work, or to go shopping, or to meet up with friends.
So why can’t we build more in the city?
A lot of people want to live in a house with a garden. They look down on the idea of apartment living, and want the benefits of living in suburbia (low density) but in the city. And so we have huge parts of the centre of Dublin that are low rise. There are some small pockets in the city that have apartment blocks (the docklands and Smithfield come to mind), but most of the mid-to-high rise development is for hotels and commercial office space.
It doesn’t have to be this way. There are countless examples of European cities that have lots of mid-rise (6 to 8 stories) apartments, mixed in with retail, entertainment and commercial space. People have access to shops, cafes and restaurants on their doorsteps. And when we spread offices around the city instead of concentrating them in one place, people can live near to their work and walk there – and we get rid of the congestion of lots of people trying to drive to the same place at the same time.
How do we change this?
We change the planning rules. We make it easier for developers to build apartment blocks within the canals. We stop building all the office buildings together and spread them out. And we stop building so many bloody hotels!
We make it so that all development is mixed development. We make it so that people can live in the same place as where they work. We make it so that schools, doctors, and shops are all within the neighbourhood. And we make it so that people don’t need to drive if they don’t want to.
Oh, and we would need to actually enforce the planning laws that were meant to stop homes instead being listed on AirBNB.