People who object to housing are akin to people who ‘cut off food during a famine’, a housing expert has said. 

A survey by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland has found that a nurse and a Garda with a combined income of €89,000 would still be unable to afford to buy a new three bedroom semi-detached property in Dublin.

They would still need to earn an additional €60,000 more a year before they would qualify for the mortgage needed for such a property.

Speaking to The Hard Shoulder, OnlineApplication.ie CEO Karl Deeter said some people are making the housing crisis worse with their behaviour.

“The way out of this is to get more houses for more people,” he said.

“If you’re in a situation where you’re in the housing prevention space, I think that’s a disgraceful thing.

“That’s like cutting off food supplies during a famine.

“I think it’s really disgraceful and I’m sure people have their reasons - because they always do.”

Houses in the Belcamp Manor estate in north Dublin. Image: Occu

Mr Deeter said there is a mindset in Ireland that is inherently suspicious of planners but that needs to change in the years ahead.

“We don’t trust our planners… because of the chicanery of the past, we have to move past that,” he said.

“That has to be fixed or we’re just going to be doing the same thing again and again for the next hundred years.”

Out of reach

Social Justice Ireland Research And Policy Analyst Susanne Rogers said she was concerned that Ireland would end up like London - where home ownership has become incredibly difficult for ordinary people.

“In London, in the mid-90s it used to take you four years to save for a deposit on an average house,” she said.

“It will now take you 30 years to save for a deposit for an average house in London.

“That’s where I am afraid we will be going.”

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Main image: 800 homes under construction in County Cork. Image: David Creedon/Alamy