Mick Clifford: Tales of ordinary madness from the housing market

Even the cats are getting fleeced now as developers and investment funds make vast profits at the expense of a generation of losers, who have to fork out a completely disproportionate amount of their income in order to rent a home in which they will only have basic rights of tenure

Griffith Wood on Dublin's northside. A caller to Joe Duffy's 'Liveline' said he and his partner were told they would have to pay an extra €75 a month for each of their two cats. File picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Even the cats are getting fleeced now. There was a tale of ordinary madness from the country’s rental market during the week. Roy spoke on RTÉ’s Liveline about the cost of renting with a cat. He and his partner Sandra have two cats, which the way things are looking might be classified as an extravagance. Roy told Joe that he and Sandra wanted to move and they saw an advertisement for what looked like a nice place to rent for €2,250 a month.

We are now at the stage where €2,250 is not considered an extortionate monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Dublin. The development was Griffith Wood, on Dublin’s northside. It consists of 377 apartments and eight townhouses. US investment fund Greystar owns 342 units, which it acquired from the builder, Cairn Homes, for €180m. The other 35 apartments were bought by Dublin City Council for social housing.