Exclusive: 7,186 Irish Homes Still Under Construction Are Destined For Vulture Landlords
Éirígí For A New Republic can today exclusively reveal that at least 7,186 Irish homes that are currently under construction will end up in the hands of the vulture landlords. This is in addition to the almost 15,000 existing vulture-owned homes which Éirígí has previously identified as part of the #TrackTheVultures project.
Taken together it brings the running total for vulture homes that have been pinpointed by the project to a staggering 21,942 homes. This figure is greater than all the homes in Waterford City and the suburbs that surround it.
The exact locations of the 7,192 new homes, which are spread across 21 building sites, can be viewed on Track The Vultures interactive map here using the newly added ‘yellow crane’ icon.
The #TrackTheVultures map now has two icons - a vulture to identify existing vulture-owned housing and a crane to identify vulture housing that is still under construction.
When users click on the yellow crane a pop up image will tell them the name of the development that is under construction, the number of homes it will eventually contain and the name of the vulture landlord that owns it.
The homes are being delivered to the vultures through a variety of routes, including direct builds by the vultures on development land they own, the ‘forward purchasing’ of homes that have yet to be build and the block buying of homes that developers have already built.
The fact that 7,128 of the homes that are currently under construction are destined for the vultures is made all the more shocking when one considers that the average number of home completions in the Twenty-Six Counteis over the last three years has been less than 20,000 per year.
And more shocking still when one considers that the figure of 7,128 only relates to housing that has been publicly linked to the vulture landlords. Based on the experience of recent years, it is highly likely that many other homes that are currently under construction will also wind up in vulture ownership.
Éirígí ‘Vultures Out’ protest earlier this month outside of the Fernbank apartments in Dundrum
Éirígí has been to the fore of highlighting and challenging the corporate takeover of Irish housing over recent years. Through the #TrackTheVultures project we are exposing the staggering volumes of homes that are now being used to generate super-profits for, mainly foreign, mega-landlords.
Unlike many other political parties Éirígí doesn’t believe there is any place for any form of ‘institutional’ landlord in Irish housing. We want to see an outright ban on vulture landlords and for all the housing that is currently owned by them to be brought into public ownership.
Research, like the #TrackTheVultures project, is only one part of Éirígí’s overall housing campaign. We are also committed to real world activism, to the organising of public meetings, protests, direct actions and all of the other things that go into building a successful political movement.
At the heart of our housing campaigning is our proposal for an entirely new system of Universal Public Housing - the only system of housing that can deliver secure, affordable homes for all and transform Irish society for the better in the process. Fina out more about Universal Public Housing here.
If you like what Éirígí is saying and doing about housing and you’re ready to join the fight for housing justice, please get in touch today here.