Ordinary buyers’ dreams of home-ownership are being bulldozed by cuckoo funds with bottomless pockets
Every day the government delays banning cuckoo funds from bulk-buying residential homes, millions of euro of property is taken out of the reach of ordinary buyers, according to Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan.
“Cuckoo funds are spending €53m a week on average, bulk-buying housing estates and apartment complexes in Dublin and the commuter belt.
“Often, they are buying these homes straight off the plans, which means that even if the government were to act today, the problem of cuckoo funds’ monopolising of the residential property market would remain for years.
“In just the first three months of this year, despite the slow-down in construction caused by the lockdown, cuckoo funds spent nearly €700m on homes and apartments. These funds have billions of euro of finance to invest in residential property and, once construction picks up, they will swoop in and snatch up homes all over the country.
“The figures, reported in the Irish Independent today, underscore the extreme hardship faced by ordinary buyers, whose dreams of home-ownership are being bulldozed by cuckoo funds with bottomless pockets.
“The government’s lax oversight of the intervention of investment funds in the residential property market has fuelled this crisis. It must act now, as a matter of urgency, to stop it getting any worse.
7 May, 2021
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