Sir, – On consecutive days, I have read (Property, April 25th and Home News, Dublin 26th) that there is a housing bubble in Dublin and that 90 per cent of Dublin flats and bedsits do not meet basic standards. By way of further evidence, I recently viewed a solid but unremarkable four-bed, detached house in a bucolic south Dublin suburb which I now understand has attracted an offer circa €150,000 in excess of, in my opinion, an already inflated guide price.
Although no observational evidence has previously existed, I can only assume that Albert Einstein’s theory of the existence of Einstein-Rosen Bridges, or “wormholes” allowing humankind to travel almost instantaneously through space and time do indeed exist. Based on the evidence, I have also reached the conclusion that I inadvertently wandered through a wormhole recently and that I am actually now living in May 2006.
In default of my admittedly far-fetched conclusion, an even more ludicrous reality would suggest that, in the midst of a broken, defunct and failed Irish economy requiring an EU/IMF bailout: 1. People are again paying inflated prices for properties which are not reflective of their actual and sustainable value. 2. That this bubble is again being part-facilitated by financial institutions and the State, this time due to delays in providing stock to the market thus abetting an under-supply. 3 That there is an apparent absence of regulation and/or enforcement with regard to standards of accommodation in the State.
Different symptoms producing familiar ailments? – Yours, etc,
ALLAN SWEENEY,
Butterfield Grove,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.