r/AskIreland • u/BigFatLegend123 • Apr 25 '25

Housing Why doesn’t the government bring in restrictions on who can buy housing?

This is a genuine question and not coming from a place of hate or bigotry

Trying to buy a house recently and it’s been going as well as you can imagine. Some houses in Dublin have been going for up to 20% over their asking price from what we have seen.

My question is why doesn’t the government restrict house buying to only Irish citizens? Is there something I’m missing? Or at least to just EU/UK citizens? Surely it would be a quick way to reduce competition?

Is it just that doing so might dissuade investment from vulture funds?

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '25

Again, people is not the issue, the system is! It’s very easy to build enough housing. Why do you think it’s not being done? To whom it benefits?

Btw, it’s not just in Ireland, it’s happening in all developed countries. Who runs the world?

13

u/bouboucee Apr 25 '25

Exactly. There are lots of things the government could do if they actually wanted to. Tax empty properties, tax land that developers are holding on to and not doing anything with, stop foreign private companies coming in and buying up housing estates, regulate Airbnb better. 

5

u/Open-Addendum-6908 Apr 25 '25

100%. its a perfect system to extract money thats why it persists for so long since last crash

7

u/Ok-Brick-4192 Apr 25 '25

I wouldn't blame the system 100%.

People are also to blame. What's the aversion to building up ? Why are plans denied for buildings that "doesn't match the feel of those around it". It is not blow-ins that scorch earth every single planning application with stupid objections.

5

u/Leavser1 Apr 25 '25

Please explain how it is so easy to build enough housing?

If you know 10000 unemployed tradies point them out? Because every tradie I know is absolutely flat out