Richard Boyd Barrett condemns vulture funds fueling housing crisis
Richard Boyd Barrett accused Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael of enabling vulture funds, corporate landlords and speculators that have produced the country's housing disaster. He urged the state to remove vulture funds from the housing sector, stop profiteering, build public and affordable housing on public land through a state construction company, and control rents.
Richard Boyd Barrett said the housing crisis is the result of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael "dancing to the tune of greedy, profit-driven speculators, vulture funds and corporate landlords." He charged that the current government is packed with landlords who profit from rising rents and house prices.
He highlighted that 100,000 families have waited more than a decade on housing lists and described rents and house prices as unaffordable for many. He said the worsening crisis benefits landlords and institutional investors who can charge higher rents and push up property values.
He pointed to Dublin rents of €2,400 and new development prices of around €600,000 in Cherrywood as evidence of profiteering. He said a publicly owned site sold by NAMA was sat on by private investors until prices rose, and claimed 60% of home purchases last year were by institutional investors with no interest in lowering rents or prices.
He called for state intervention to remove vulture funds and "profit vampires" from the housing sector, to build public and affordable housing on public land on a not-for-profit basis, to develop state capacity via a state's construction company, and to control rents so they remain affordable. He argued the state could do this now as it did in the past when the country was poorer.
Who he blames
Richard Boyd Barrett said the housing crisis is the result of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael "dancing to the tune of greedy, profit-driven speculators, vulture funds and corporate landlords." He charged that the current government is packed with landlords who profit from rising rents and house prices.
Scale and human impact
He highlighted that 100,000 families have waited more than a decade on housing lists and described rents and house prices as unaffordable for many. He said the worsening crisis benefits landlords and institutional investors who can charge higher rents and push up property values.
Concrete examples cited
He pointed to Dublin rents of €2,400 and new development prices of around €600,000 in Cherrywood as evidence of profiteering. He said a publicly owned site sold by NAMA was sat on by private investors until prices rose, and claimed 60% of home purchases last year were by institutional investors with no interest in lowering rents or prices.
Policy proposals and demands
He called for state intervention to remove vulture funds and "profit vampires" from the housing sector, to build public and affordable housing on public land on a not-for-profit basis, to develop state capacity via a state's construction company, and to control rents so they remain affordable. He argued the state could do this now as it did in the past when the country was poorer.
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Transcript
The simple reason we have a housing disaster in this country is because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have danced to the tune of greedy, profit-driven speculators, vulture funds and corporate landlords. And the resulting crisis that has left us with 100,000 families waiting for more than a decade on housing lists, unaffordable rents and unaffordable house prices is for Micheál Martin to turn around and say we need to pivot more towards the very private investors driven by greed for profit that caused the crisis in the first place. You couldn't make it up but it shouldn't surprise us from a Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael government and now government of regional independence packed full of landlords themselves who make money out of the housing crisis. And this is the dirty secret of the housing crisis in this country. There are some people who benefit from it. The worse the crisis gets the more the landlords can charge unaffordable rents, the more they can charge unaffordable house prices. So what we need to do is for the state to intervene, stop the profiteering of the speculators, the landlords and the vulture funds, get the vulture funds completely out of the Irish housing sector and for the state to build a public and affordable housing on a not-for-profit basis and to develop its own capacity to do so through a state's construction company and to control rents so that they are kept at affordable levels. I mean I just find it unbelievable, unbelievable that they are going on about the poor landlords and the poor property investors for whom rents in Dublin of 2,400 aren't enough. They need a tax incentive as well as charging these shocking rents or house prices that are now on new developments in my area 600,000 euro in Cherrywood. Unbelievable, that was a publicly owned site that NAMA sold off to private investors who sat on it, waited for the value of that property and that asset to rise and only started building when they could charge 600 or 700,000 euro prices that are completely unaffordable. The only people who could afford them then of course are the institutional investors. So 60% of all home purchases last year by institutional investors many of them these vulture funds. They have no interest in driving down rents. They have no interest in driving down house prices. The higher the rents, the higher the house prices, the more profits they make but you want to incentivise them more. It is absolutely sickening. So the housing crisis is being orchestrated by people who make money out of it. We need to get these vulture funds and profit vampires out of the housing sector and for the state to build public and affordable housing on public land. And if we could do it when this country was an impoverished virtual third world country, we can certainly do it when we are one of the richest countries in the world.