Sir, – How is it possible to introduce penal mandatory criteria for young home buyers and yet be unable to legally enforce the banks to pass on interest rate cuts to their customers? In a country that has not raised the minimum wage in years and which entertains ruinous employment contracts, the possibility of average working-class couples beating the landlords to the house keys is unlikely in the extreme. Roll on 2016. We have so much equality to celebrate. – Yours, etc,
EUGENE TANNAM,
Firhouse, Dublin 24.
Sir, – The Central Bank’s decision on mortgage deposits is to be welcomed. However, it is disturbing that a supposedly independent central bank has bowed to political pressure and allowed banks to provide extra leverage to first-time buyers. This is great news for anyone selling a small house or apartment in Dublin, as now there will be additional credit to goose up the selling price.
What is now needed is either a “use it or lose it” requirement for zoned development land – or a site tax to discourage further hoarding of land by developers in the hope of further price rises.
The current low interest rate environment makes a “wait-and-see” approach a one-way bet.
Lobbyists are using the historical costs of development land to justify sitting on zoned sites when in fact construction costs are now far below selling prices. Speculative historical prices paid are “sunk costs” and the new variable costs of material and labour should be more important in a rational market. Alas, the Irish property market can never be accused of being rational. – Yours, etc,
MATTHEW GLOVER,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.