Irish Examiner view: Weak reaction on housing crisis raises stakes

In the last month, investment funds outbid affordable housing agencies on more than 400 homes by offering up to €80,000 more per unit.
Though Ireland is very different today from the less affluent, more deferential 1973 version, the problems around housing are essentially the same, even if amplified by newfound affluence. That affluence has turned our housing market into a honey pot for international investors but a bitter-sweet reality for a far, far too many of the cohort needed to support civil society. The reported yesterday that in the last month investment funds outbid affordable housing agencies on more than 400 homes by offering up to €80,000 more per unit. This came as Government tweaks and twists to control institutional funds’ impact in housing. The coalition is under intense pressure to ensure that these funds — neocolonialists — cannot buy housing estates to rent the houses to those who might have hoped to buy one.