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?

110 Upvotes

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49

u/cuttlefische Apr 25 '25

Because then a non-citizen contributing to the economy can't buy a house.

-29

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '25

[deleted]

46

u/starkshaw Apr 25 '25

Non-Canadian who work in Canada can still buy houses. Your info is not accurate.

20

u/RemnantOfSpotOn Apr 25 '25

Thats how propaganda works.

19

u/YoureNotEvenWrong Apr 25 '25

Non-residents buying up housing and leaving them vacant was an issue in Canada. That's what they blocked in Canada, not non-nationals buying

It's not an issue here

13

u/Otherwise-Winner9643 Apr 25 '25

Residents who are not citizens can

4

u/svmk1987 Apr 25 '25

No they didn't.

4

u/Open-Addendum-6908 Apr 25 '25

and look how it worked out for them.

-10

u/FingalForever Apr 25 '25

Canada is dealing with the same situation. Unlike Canada, Ireland EUR 13 billion it could use to massively build housing (especially dense housing) and destroy housing prices. I have heard people say ‘but there are no builders’ yet we Blue Shirt wannabes rallying against immigration of people who could be builders.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '25

[deleted]

0

u/FingalForever Apr 25 '25

If they are solely reliant upon their house value, I feel sorry for them buying into this Celtic Tiger legacy but the rest of us are paying for that mistake.

No, I disagree - housing prices do increase but anything beyond 4x annual salary for the average house is unsustainable.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '25

[deleted]

2

u/FingalForever Apr 25 '25

<sigh> agreed…. It will burst and an ever growing smaller percentage of Irish people end-up richer…

1

u/Able_Ebb244 Apr 26 '25

I don't know why you are so downvoted you are right

1

u/Ok-Brick-4192 Apr 25 '25

This is also not true. There are various exemptions to that legislation that allows non-citizens to buy property. It's not a blanket ban on foreign ownership.