The housing crisis being overseen and managed by successive Fianna Fail and Fine Gael governments, enthusiastically abetted by their lapdogs in Labour and the Greens, exists solely to protect the profits of a small number of well-connected individuals.
A prime example of how this operates in local communities is ‘Barnoaks’; a new housing development in an area of West Tallaght, in Dublin, called ‘Citywest’. Built by Glenveagh properties, it is marketed towards first time buyers. Advertisements on its hoardings feature a young couple in fashionable knitwear drinking lattes, while offering what Glenveagh called ‘balanced living’. Meaning, we assume, that the new owners will be struggling to balance living fulfilling lives with paying off the horrendous mortgages needed to own one of the homes on offer, or paying the colossal rent demanded by corporate landlords for the privilege of temporary accommodation there.
At first glance this development seems to follow a clear pattern: private developer builds homes in an area where local people cannot afford to buy, and those who can afford to buy don’t want to live, which sees properties snapped up by vulture funds (REITS etc.) and rented privately, or via HAP to people on the council waiting list.
Housing Crisis: High Rents instead of Affordable Housing
However, a deeper dive reveals something much grimmer. Rather than just greedy vultures feasting on the hopes and dreams of working-class people who just want somewhere to live, with ‘Barnoaks’ we come face to face with the calculating and malignant profiteers who are deliberately manipulating the housing crisis for their own ends.
320 apartments in ‘Barnoaks’ while developed by Glenveagh were forward funded by Ardstone Capital with the apartments then transferred to Ardstone Residential Income Fund and now managed by another subsidiary of Ardstone: Storyhouse.
This author took a stroll around ‘Barnoaks’ recently and noted most of the apartments are still unoccupied which is no surprise seeing rents run from 1,800 euro a month for a studio apartment (aka a fancy bedsit) to 2,800 euro for a three bed. It should be noted there has been a proliferation of apartment developments in Citywest, which you would assume if the free-market theorists were to be believed, should see competitive rents, but of course this is the real world not the imaginary fantasy land of capitalist economists.
Capital’s Next Move: State Subsidised High Rents for Landlords as ‘Social Housing’
The apartments in Citywest are obviously aimed towards short term transient tenants, not those wanting to find a permanent home or raise a family. Which means we have a glut of empty apartments in an area where people are desperate for housing. Failure to find tenants for these empty apartments will see companies like Ardstone, and its subsidiaries, turning their beady eyes towards the local authority or approved housing bodies to fill them.
With 30% of Ardstone’s Residential Income Fund set aside for social housing and the remainder for so-called ‘affordable’ housing, Ardmore has already had dealings with local councils. Indeed, its apartment complex in Leixlip Barnhall is partly leased to Kildare County Council while Colmcille house in Stoneybatter has been leased to Dublin County Council.
Across the road from ‘Barnoaks’ the approved housing body Tuath are building a small number of social houses on a scrap of green space surrounding a McDonald’s restaurant on land previously owned by Citywest Shopping Centre. Co-incidentally Citywest Shopping Centre is owned by Ardstone Capital and the adjacent Citywest Drive Strategic Housing Development is being built by Ardstone Residential Income Fund in partnership with Dutch investors Patrizia Sustainable communities fund.
So here we have just one company with hundreds of apartments in one small area of Tallaght where there happens to be a long waiting list for social housing. And considering that Ardstone Residential Income Fund exists to profit from rental incomes over a number of years we can easily see how the mass building of social housing by county councils would impact on Ardstone and its many investors at home and abroad.
But so long as the housing crisis is managed by Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, and their lapdogs in Labour and The Greens, Ardstone and other profiteers have no need to worry.