Was it a discussion on vulture funds?
Vulture Funds & Affordable Housing
What was the argument in favour of the vulture funds? Or in favour of not banning them
I’d say it’s incorrect to classify these funds as vulture funds. They are typically long terms investors looking for a solid annual return. I’d expect pension funds would invest in these funds. By contrast means vulture funds buy distressed assets, slap them around a bit and sell them for a quick buck.
I would expect that for a developer a sale of multiple houses to a fund is cheaper and easier than a sale of individual units. No agents fees, no show houses, no endless Saturday’s of tire kickers wandering through the show houses. Anything that makes it easier and cheaper to sell houses acts as an incentive to build which in turn should result in the building of more houses. Which is government policy. As between owner occupying and renting. Not everyone can afford to buy and we also have a large transient component in our workforce who will never want to buy here but who have to be housed here. Also our owner occupier model is an outlier in Europe. Ownership of rental properties by funds is common all over the continent. So I’d say there are multiple argument against banning funds.
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Great explanation 
Is there any prospect of them being banned?
My simplistic view is government should build a load of houses themselves on land they own. Rent some at cheap rates to those who can’t afford them and make some money back by selling the rest at slightly above what it cost to build them. This would drive prices and rents down. But would also probably drive tax take and wages down and is possibly communism.
Any chance of that working?
Only if we want to further fuck up the market, which I wouldn’t rule out.
That’s a great post.
I find myself nodding in agreement with it.
Good post @Fagan_ODowd but how do we stop whole estates being sold to them and leave first time buyers with nothing.
They’re also paying a premium for the entire lot if they buy a large block of apartments so its a no brainer for the developer. They’ve no fees and they’re getting more than he would selling them separately.
The days of developers making loads of wedge from apartments and 3 bed semis is gone, although that does depend on the location also. They make money in the more affluent areas but there’s a big difference in the profit from a 2 bed apartment in Clontarf than in Adamstown.
The price of materials has shot up in the last few years as well, and shot up more in the last few months even. Build regs, which arent a bad thing, around green energy and insulation have also increased costs hugely.
Anyone trying to buy an apartment or family home are mainly in competition with the funds (normal pension funds which is a bit mad, as they want young people to pay towards a pension so they can then rent them a house forever), the local councils who will then rent them for fuck all, and international funds who don’t even keep their money in Ireland, its gone to Canada or the US when they get it.
There is also a number of funds buying 3 and 4 bed semis separately in different areas and then renting them to the councils for 20 years - government backed rent for 20 years which pays off the cost of the house. They have built up large portfolios of family homes dotted around Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Cork with the knowledge they have 20 years of guaranteed income.
Its a fucking shit show for anyone on normal wages trying to compete in this market. The first thing to do is tax the fuck out of the funds and stop them buying family homes. Developers will still build. its what they do, but the Government should assist with contributions to some costs and provide guarantees around the funding of projects.
The Councils then need to build houses and estates like they did years ago and stop competing with other families. There may have been fuck ups like Ballymun which had no facilities but there was an awful lot of good council houses built in areas that didn’t see those other problems.
Good luck Minister O’Brien and Deputy O’Broin
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Id agree with @Fagan_ODowd, they are not vultures, and some here are developers who are just renting, probably because they would lose money from selling but it goes to show the extent of some purchases by the funds.
Yes but an awful lot of those are apartments for which there is an argument that they shouldn’t really be owner occupied. Owner occupied apartments here have been a shit show.
Eirigi using the 20k they got courtesy of Johnny Arse to good effect there.
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Id agree with that. Owner occupiers want to pay fuck all service charges and argue about costs. Rather than keep apartment blocks really nice and their, home/investment of their property up and then sell on to step up the ladder. Instead the management company are constantly chasing fees and the apartment blocks go to shite.
They should allow the funds to purchase blocks of apartments for rent but they should be taxed to fuck or have some rent cap. The councils and developers with guarantees of funding should then be building family homes where the people renting can move to when they get married/start a family.
In the cities build them high but there are acres of green fields for houses close to where some of those apartments are built.
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cuckoo funds is the correct term
Tommy and Ardal starting on RTE
A 3 part documentary on the Barrytown trilogy, that could be decent
Hazel Chu comes across as some geebag
You have the hurling opening, la liga finishing, Alex Higgins rocking and Knicks @ Clippers live on IPTV
Yest some lads are watching Hazel Chu 
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They are biting off more than they can Chu
I see watchu did there