Sir, – The Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV) is of the opinion that the Central Bank's mortgage lending rules are effectively locking those on average incomes out of the home ownership market and that, from the perspective of equity and fairness, limiting home ownership in many parts of the country to those on high incomes is not acceptable or sustainable (Business + Commercial Property,, August 25th).
The IPAV may be correct on both counts but it does not follow that its proposed solution – “tweaking” the lending rules to allow those on lower incomes to borrow more – is the right one. When it is clear that the cost of residential property is way out of line with incomes, the solution is not to lend more – we tried that approach – but rather to address the more egregious contributors to the cost of delivery of new homes.
You report regularly on members of the IPAV bringing to market sites with planning permission for apartments or houses at a site cost of €150,000 to €450,000 per unit. Let’s start there. – Yours, etc,
PAT O’BRIEN,
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.