Anne Cronin: Is Limerick’s directly-elected mayor a lost cause?

In 2019, the people of Limerick voted for a better system of local decision-making. But house-hunting in the city is still futile and it appears that little has changed

Limerick City and County Council is involved in a house purchase programme where they are buying homes for twice their value. Picture: Dan Linehan

In Limerick last week a derelict semi-detached house located beside a petrol station on the busy Ennis Road fetched a sale price of €740,000. While the road in question is considered one of the most affluent parts of the city to make a purchase, this house has been boarded up for years and resembles an image taken in the ghost estates of the last decade.

A concerning trend has developed in the city, where houses are selling for far in excess of what they were bought for in the previous couple of months. Alarmingly, many of these homes in Limerick and across the country are being bought by the local authority.