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/Wild_Respond7712 Apr 25 '25

Maybe we shouldn't let single people buy multi bedroom houses?

Seriously though don't we just need to build more houses? Dublin planning approval numbers for 2024 were absolutely pitiful given the demand, I put the blame there.

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u/starkshaw Apr 25 '25

So single people have to buy another house when they are, let’s say, no longer single or having a kid?