Tariffs are “lose lose” situation for would-be homeowners, says Hearne

The future of Ireland’s housing market is at the mercy of international tariffs and trade wars due to the government’s over-reliance on institutional investors, according to Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne.

The Dublin North-West TD said today’s report from MyHome has painted a “stark picture” of the Irish housing system in the wake of the Trump tariffs.

In March, there were 10,800 homes up for sale on the website, and Irish house prices, as a whole, are now at their highest level since 2009.

He said the future of housing, as a commodity, would be at the mercy of international affairs in the absence of proactive measures by domestic governments.

“The binary it presents is a grim one – recession conditions brought on by a trade war may make housing more affordable, while a resolution could see house prices inflate even more than was once believed,” the Soc Dems housing spokesperson said.

“This is a lose-lose situation as increased tariffs would lead to a reduction in private housing supply and worker income, rebuffing any hopes of buying becoming more affordable, while an end to tariffs and a return to the status quo of unending inflation takes the dream of owning a home even further from the grasp of a locked-out generation.”

Hearne said that Ireland could have escaped the worst of the looming economic crisis, had Ireland’s economy not been so reliant on private sector and investor funding.

“If successive governments had focused on building social and affordable housing, the market would have gained the resilience necessary to weather international economic shocks like the ones we’re seeing now,” he said.

“Without a complete change of tone and vision for the future of this sector, we’re doomed to face the consequences of volatile nations’ decision to war with one another.”

He said that “scaling up the delivery of affordable homes through local authorities and not-for-profit housing bodies is the only way to reassert control on the housing market.”

“There are now 15,378 people living in homeless emergency accommodation – 4,653 of them children – while 115,425 households are in need of social housing.”

“Given that only 2,119 social homes were built in the first nine months of the year, it is blatantly obvious that the 2024 target of 9,300 will not be reached. It will be the third year in a row that social housing targets will have been missed.”

“The government’s refusal to see sense has left us at the mercy of conflicts we cannot control – an emergency response is needed now more than ever to pivot focus towards social and affordable housing,” Hearne asserted.