Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Publication
    Property-led Urban, Town and Rural Regeneration in Ireland: Positive and Perverse Outcomes in Different Spatial and Socio-economic Contexts
    (Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2014) ; ;
    In the mid-1980s, fiscal incentives were introduced to encourage the construction and refurbishment of residential developments in declining inner-city districts in Ireland. These were abolished in 2006 but, during the intervening period, their focus was extended to include: large towns, small towns and a large rural region. Concurrently, the context for their implementation changed as an economic boom replaced prolonged economic stagnation. This article examines the changing design of these incentives, their outputs and their intended and unintended impacts. It argues that, initially they were successful in drawing development into declining neighbourhoods, but the extension of their lifespan and spatial focus created negative perverse impacts and deadweight costs for the exchequer. Thus it concludes that this regeneration strategy is useful for animating development in brownfield sites, where there is demand for housing but also barriers to its development. If applied to rural areas where housing demand is weaker, they can generate excess supply and limited benefits for public investment.
    Scopus© Citations 12  669
  • Publication
    Breaching the Limits of Owner Occupation? Supporting Low-Income Buyers in the Inflated Irish Housing Market
    (Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2007-07) ; ;
    The Republic of Ireland broadly has relatively high rates of home ownership compared to the rest of western Europe, which are related to the longstanding, broadly targeted state subsidization of home purchase provided as part of an implicit tradition of asset-based welfare. During the 1980s, however, several of these generalist subsidies were abolished and the remainder reoriented towards enabling low income households to purchase a home, while the last ten years have seen unprecedented house price inflation. This article, which examines the operation of these low income home buyers' supports in five case study areas, reaches largely negative conclusions about their efficacy in the current housing market context. Despite efforts to increase transactions by introducing new schemes of this type, levels of use have remained static since the early 1990s. These measures have failed to stem the recent fall in the proportion of Irish households that own their homes. More seriously, widespread arrears on mortgages held by scheme participants casts doubts on the sustainability of the home ownership they facilitate. Thus, the Irish case demonstrates that even when heavily subsidized home ownership does have structural limits and highlights the problems associated with attempting to breech these limits by lifting low-income households into this tenure.
    Scopus© Citations 28  698
  • Publication
    How housing killed the Celtic tiger: anatomy and consequences of Ireland's housing boom and bust
    (Springer, 2014-06) ;
    Between 1996 and 2006, Ireland experienced unprecedented house price inflation, driven by a fourfold increase in the volume of outstanding private mortgage debt and accompanied by a radical growth in housing output. This article outlines the most significant features of the housing boom and explains how it generated and disguised crucial risks in the macro economy and public finances, among mortgage lenders and in the finances of individual households. This is followed by an outline of the key features of the unwinding of the boom since and of its implications for the Irish economy, mortgage lenders and households. The conclusions examine the lessons regarding appropriate regulatory and policy responses to a house price boom which arise from the Irish experience.
    Scopus© Citations 32  1214
  • Publication
    Private sector provision of social housing: an assessment of recent Irish experiments
    (Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2010-12-10) ;
    In recent years many European governments have reduced the role of social housing in accommodating low-income households and increased the role of the private rented sector with the aid of housing allowances. The Irish government had expected that this would lead to better value for money and would give claimants greater flexibility. However, this has not proved to be the case and housing allowance claimant numbers have been very difficult to control. The Irish experience highlights some administrative strategies which could be employed by other countries to address this problem
    Scopus© Citations 12  1057
  • Publication
    The Uneven Geography of Housing Allowance Claims in Ireland: administrative, financial and social implications
    (Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2007-11) ;
    This article employs administrative data on claimants of rent supplement—theprincipal housing allowance for private renting households in the Republic of Ireland—toexamine spatial variations in the numbers of claimants, the cost of this benefit and the characteristicsof claimant households both within and between different regions. It reveals that thesespatial variations illuminate some of the reasons for the unexpectedly high growth in both thenumbers of claimants and the cost of rent supplement over the last decade. This geographicalanalysis casts doubts on several of the key supposed benefits of using housing allowances,rather than capital grant aid for social housing provision, to cater for the accommodationneeds of low-income households. It reveals that, due to uneven claimant geography, the costsof the former are just as difficult to control as the latter. Moreover, housing allowances do notnecessarily afford claimants greater consumer choice. As a result of funding constraints anddiscrimination by landlords their locational choices are severely constrained which in turnmeans that the socio-spatial segregation associated with housing allowances is as significantas that effected by social housing provision.
    Scopus© Citations 1  911