The Irish property market and the law of unintended consequences - there’s enough material for a book. The rapid acceleration in PRS investment - the latest dynamic to percolate through the system - and the narrative that goes with it, namely that so-called “cuckoo funds” are pushing first-time buyers out of the market, has prompted a national outcry. It has also panicked the Government into making policy on the hoof.
So institutional investors - and remember we didn’t have them before 2008 - were systemically embedded in the country’s recovery from the crash via Nama and the de-risking of bank balance sheets. The next big policy initiative came in the form of changes to planning standards, ostensibly designed to encourage more high-density development. This allowed for a greater cluster of apartments on a given site, effectively by changing aspect ratios, reducing the requirement for car parking spaces and allowing for greater elevation.
Most of the big schemes in Dublin are now being built on the basis of a pre-sale or a pre-let agreement, whereby the developer is financed by the end buyer, or financed because there is a guaranteed end buyer or tenant. And because the end buyer is a PRS investor, the units bypass the sales market in favour of the rental sector, hence the perception that first-time buyers are being squeezed out of the market. This mode of procurement now appears to be the only game in town.
One of the biggest vultures happens to be Irish !
Money?
They were welcomed in..and IRLDeptFinance takes decisions ..but not responsibility....in a nutshell.
They didn’t target anything. They are investing all around the world. Ireland is just another country on their list...