This Éirígí Video Clocked Up 250,000+ Views In Just Five Days - Watch It Now!
This week saw an Éirígí produced housing video go viral on social media, clocking up more than a quarter of a million views in just five days on the TikTok platform alone. The video is question captured the moment that Éirígí activists ‘rebranded’ the hoarding surrounding a Vulture Landlord-owned development in the South Dublin suburb of Knocklyon.
The action was the latest in a series of housing actions that Éirígí South Dublin have carried out in recent years. Speaking from Ballinteer, Éirígí representative for the area, Brian Leeson, said, “Back in 2016 Éirígí took the decision to make housing our priority campaign. In the intervening six years, Éirígí has led the fight for housing justice in Dundrum, Ballinteer, Sandyford, Rathfarnham and the wider South Dublin area.
Through the ground-breaking research of the Track The Vultures project, Éirígí has identified and mapped the locations of more than 15,000 Vulture Landlord-controlled homes in South Dublin. Last Sunday we targeted one of the largest of these developments, the Two Oaks site in Knocklyon.
Brian Leeson (in orange high-vis) alongside other Éirígí activists following the ‘rebranding’ of the Two Oaks hoarding
The Two Oaks site encapsulates much of what is wrong with the housing and political systems in Ireland. For starters the housing is being built on land that was owned by the former Fine Gael Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave up until his death in 2017. For decades he was allowed to sit on this large strategic land bank and upon his death that land bank passed to his family who subsequently sold it for an estimated €30,000,000 to Ardstone Capital.
Ardstone Capital is an Irish Vulture Landlord formed by a group of former Friends First executives. They made a name for themselves in the aftermath of the collapse of the Celtic Tiger by buying discounted offices and commercial properties from state-controlled NAMA - properties that were subsequently flipped for millions of euro of profit.
In more recent times Ardstone have moved into housing, using money secured in the international capital markets to amass a huge portfolio of Irish rental housing. An Bord Pleanála granted them planning permission to built 590 homes on the Twin Oaks site, with 480 of those homes falling into the new category of Build-To-Rent housing which must be legally owned by a Vulture Landlord for at least 15 years.
The rental income from the Two Oaks development alone will be about €1,000,000 per month or €12,000,000 per year. Due to the government’s taxation policies, we know that Ardstone and their international financial backers will pay very little, if any tax, on this vast income.
The Dublin government’s housing policies, planning policies and taxation policies have all been changed in recent years to maximise the profits of the Vulture Landlords. In contrast, the people who rent their homes from the Vulture Landlords pay the full rate of income and other taxes, while also being hammered by exploitative rents and the wider cost of living crisis.
The action that our activists took in rebranding the Two Oaks hoarding has shone a brilliant light on this particular site and the wider government-facilitated exploitation of the Vultures. In the coming weeks and months Éirígí will be stepping up the pressure on the Vulture Landlords and the gombeen politicians that serve them.
The fight for housing justice can be won, but it will require many more people to step up and join that fight. Over the last six years, Éirígí has shown how committed we are to the housing struggle. Now is the time to join the fight. Now is the time to join Éirígí and work with like minded people to end the tyranny of the land hoarders, developers, bankers, landlords and other assorted housing parasites. Join us today.”