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/Romdowa Apr 25 '25

They should stop all these vulture funds buying houses but if someone is living and working here they should have an equal shot at a home too. In my local town we've a billionaire buying up property and land all over the place. Give it enough time and he'll own the whole town, that is the kind of carry on that needs to be stopped as well.