Admission
ISPA members – free
Non-members – E 5.00
Wine Reception
All attendees are invited to a wine reception in DIT, following the seminar.
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Housing Policy and the Financial Crisis
January 2010, DIT, Aungier Street Dublin
Speakers.
Dr. M. Norris, Senior Lecturer, Social Policy, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, UCD.
Mr. S. Brooke, Housing consultant and expert of social housing; editor Cornerstone magazine.
Housing, Wealth, Debt and Stress: Before, During and After the Celtic Tiger.
Over the last decade the Republic of Ireland experienced an unprecedented economic boom, which contributed to equally dramatic demographic and housing market booms. Using data from the European Union Survey of Income and Living Conditions (EU, SILC), this paper examines the implications of this ‘celtic tiger’ boom for housing wealth, debt and stress. It reveals that this period is characterised by contradictory trends. On the one hand housing wealth – as measured by outright home ownership – increased markedly among most social groups. On the other hand, among the mainly urban and younger households servicing mortgages, debt levels increased radically, although the perceived burden of these debts (housing stress) did not rise in parallel because many indebted households have higher than average incomes. Since 2007, the Irish economy and housing market has declined both suddenly and sharply, leading to rising unemployment and negative equity. To date this bust has had less widespread negative impacts on home owners than would be expected because outright home ownership rates are high in Ireland and job losses have been concentrated among those social groups which are less likely to have mortgages. However our analysis points to a high risk of mortgage unaffordability and default among some sections of the population – principally younger home owners in Dublin, who have recently suffered high rates of job losses, negative equity and indebtedness. These developments have not yet translated into widespread repossessions of owner occupied dwellings; but it is likely that they will do so in the near future.
ISPA's 2009 AGM and Spring Lecture took place in Management House, DIT Aungier Street on Monday, 30th March at 6pm. For further details, please click here.
Presentations from the recent ISPA Conference in September 2008 have been added to the ISPA Members section. To become a member, see the Join ISPA section.
