Census reveals how locals struggle to buy housing in Dingle town

“People who want to relocate here are selling houses in Dublin where they can easily get over €500,000 and they are investing here at comparatively low cost, even though house prices in West Kerry are escalating,” he said. “Local young people haven’t a chance. It’s why the population isn’t increasing.” He added that the lack of supply of residential housing is made even worse because “you have new houses with [planning] conditions that they are to be used as permanent residences but the council aren’t enforcing it”. Dingle estate agent Mike Kennedy said that people seeking to work from home in West Kerry also make up the bulk of his clients, along with local emigrants retiring home to Dingle and older people who want to move from the country to town to be close to services. All of these are people who already have a foot in the property market and can afford Dingle prices. However, he said young local couples and families are in an impossible position. “Very few locals are able to buy – there’s a big problem with the lack of supply of affordable housing,” he said. Mike added that very few family homes come on the market in Dingle. Most of the properties on his books are apartments but “people with children are looking for property with a bit of a garden”. He estimated that, despite the demand for accommodation, 70 – 80 per cent of town centre properties in Dingle are vacant. “There are businesses on the ground floor but there’s nobody living upstairs… I think the reason is the very high cost of bringing those old houses up to modern standards,” he said. Cllr Breandán Fitzgerald said that house prices in Dingle are beyond people’s reach and there is an urgent need for more social and affordable housing. Under current legislation so called affordable housing is only built in towns with a population of 10,000 or more people, but at a recent council meeting Breandán sought changes in the legislation so that affordable housing schemes could be extended to towns like Dingle. “There’s an issue with houses that are supposed to be ‘residential’ going into the holiday market… As well as that there are Celtic Tiger houses that got into negative equity and also finished up in the tourist market and sometimes it’s hard to blame people for that,” he said, adding: “There are legacy issues but, going forward, the authorities must ensure that if a house is built with ‘residential’ status then it must be a house for families.” Cllr Seamus Cosaí Fitzgerald said a major problem in Dingle and West Kerry was that highly educated young local people are leaving the area because the kind of work they are qualified for isn’t available here. “If young people took up trades they would be able to get plenty of work here because it’s impossible to get builders or any tradespeople, but that’s not what they’re doing. They’re all going to university, “ he said adding that property prices were also making it extremely difficult for young people to stay in their home place.