FactCheck: Five claims made about the housing crisis during last night's RTÉ leaders' debate
THE HOUSING CRISIS has been an ongoing saga for a number of years, so it was inevitable that the issue would be central to this year’s general election campaign.
Last night, we ran a live factcheck of the debate on Twitter and today we’ll look at some of the major claims and points of contention in a bit more detail. We understand that first-time buyers can find it difficult to save for a deposit, which is why we introduced Help to Buy. As of 2 January, 16,409 of these applications have been approved – higher than the figure cited by the Taoiseach.Based on the number of people who have made a successful Help-to-Buy application, the claim is largely accurate, although the Taoiseach underestimated the actual figure.As per our verdict guide, this means: the claim is accurate, and is not missing any significant details or context.
Since I’ve become Taoiseach, 50,000 new homes have been built in Ireland. That means tonight there are 50,000 people sitting in a sitting room, watching a TV in a house that didn’t exist only three years ago. The Facts The BER tracker by Goodbody counts the number of energy certificates registered in Ireland over a particular period.
Using Goodbody’s method, 49,868 homes were built in Ireland from 2017 to 2019. By comparison, the CSO’s method counts 47,127 new builds over almost the same period, a difference of nearly 3,000 units. Neither figure is above the 50,000 claimed by the Taoiseach, but both figures – particularly Goodbody’s – is close enough.As per our verdict guide, this means that there are elements of truth in the claim, but also elements of falsehood, or the best available evidence is evenly weighted in support of, and against, the claim.
The most recent figures from the CSO shows that property prices increased by 1.4% nationally from November 2018 to November 2019. Meanwhile, Dublin property prices in November were 21.3% lower than their February 2007 peak , while residential property prices in the rest of Ireland in November were 19.9% lower than their May 2007 peak .On average, house prices are still increasing across the country, despite falling marginally in Dublin. They are also around 16.8% lower than they were at their peak in 2007.As per our verdict guide, there is an element of truth in the claim, but it is missing critical details or context.
But the latest Rebuilding Ireland progress report, released in December last year, shows that although the government set a target for 6,545 new social housing builds in 2019, just 2,229 were built by September .That figure includes 226 ‘voids’ returned to use, meaning just 2,003 new units of social housing were built by local authorities and AHBs – less than a third of the figure claimed by Varadkar.
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