Sir, – The Central Bank’s rules on mortgage lending limits have been one of the more far-sighted and sensible policy outcomes stemming from the financial crash of the last decade.
One can only imagine where prices would be if yet another credit bubble had been allowed to inflate.
The solution to solving the widening divide between renters and homeowners is not to make mortgage lending easier, but to bring down the cost of purchasing an home itself ("Struggling to buy a home? Long-term mortgage may suit those who cannot pass income rules", Analysis, Business, July 6th).
So many renters I know cannot save for the huge deposits required as their rents are so high. Cheaper homes mean lower deposits. How do we achieve this nirvana, which would benefit an entire generation of disillusioned Irish youth?
Building our way out of this will never happen fast enough. The Government must cease the commoditisation of housing by no longer allowing housing to be an investment.
No more buy-to-let, no more international real-estate investment trusts, no more build-to-rent.
Let’s force all those rental properties into the homeowner market overnight, massively boosting supply for those who want to buy, lowering prices, and let’s end the disease of “rentier capitalism” that has afflicted this State for too long and blighted too many young lives. – Yours, etc,
CHRIS TAVENDER,
Swords,
Co Dublin.