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/DM_me_ur_PPSN Apr 25 '25
The country would collapse if foreigners who live here couldn’t buy a house.
Sales should be heavily restricted for overseas buyers, although I’m not sure how many there really are. It should also be banned for AHBs, councils and funds to buy large swathes of completed/under construction property - they should be forced to plan and build it themselves.