Housing shortage heartbreak laid bare in TV show
The eye-opening documentary series, Find Me A Home, highlights the desperate search by families in the capital to put a roof over their heads as they are faced with crippling rents which are now 60% higher than they were in back in 2011.
The series reveals that on average, in Dublin, rents are €1,700 a month, €260 higher than at the height of the boom in 2008.
West Dublin property consultant, Jim Payne, told the documentary he has never seen anything like the housing shortage in suburbs like Ballyfermot.
“Rents are 10 or 20% higher than the boom of 2005/2006. There is desperation. We are coming across people who are six or eight months looking for a property. In my 20 years in the business I’ve never seen it like this before.
“A couple of years [ago] they were looking for what kind of heating, what kind of kitchen, does it have an ensuite? Could they negotiate on the rent? We don’t come up against any objections anymore. We’ll take it. We’re happy. When can we move in?”
He told how there was a huge queue for a terraced three bedroomed home in Ballyfermot as soon as it went on the rental market.
“It is an area there is a lot of young people growing up, it’s close to town, highly sought-after. There is the usual dilemma of trying to pick one family,” he said after the viewing.
Melissa Keogh and Eddie O’Reilly and their four children are one of the desperate families looking to get the home in Ballyfermot after their previous home in the area was sold off by their landlord.
“I was 35 weeks pregnant. I remember breaking down roaring crying to my partner asking were we going to end up in a hostel?” she said.
They tell how they are struggling to live 20km away from their children’s schools and their families in a two-bedroomed apartment lent to them by a friend in Stepaside.
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