Google, Amazon, Meta... Ireland faces an unprecedented housing crisis

Google, Amazon, Meta... Thirty years ago, Ireland linked its destiny to these Gafam. These American web giants have all made Dublin their European capital, boosting its economy. Except that they have also caused real estate prices to soar, and are pushing the country into an unprecedented housing crisis. Today, available housing is scarce. The competition is such that even tech employees, although among the best paid in the country, struggle to find a roof over their heads.

This is the case of Constantina, customer manager for one of these large American multinationals. From its offices, the view is breathtaking over the ultramodern Grand Canal Docks district, also called the Silicon Docks, a nod to the American Silicon Valley. But on her phone, this "Irish dream" collides with another reality, that of Daft, "the main rental site in Ireland," she explains. When you look at the ads, a simple studio is 2,750 euros per month! This one is 2,350 euros, the other is 2,400 euros. These prices are completely absurd," laments the young woman who shows through the window that there are construction sites and cranes everywhere.

“If most of your salary goes towards rent, you don’t have much left to live on. And in that case… what’s the point?”

After years of shared accommodation, Constantina now lives alone in north County Dublin due to a lack of available accommodation in the capital. This compromise requires up to an hour and a half of daily travel. “At each visit, 30 people are waiting for the same accommodation and all the candidates will have the same profile: they work like you, in tech. How can the owner choose? It’s the lottery!”, she exclaims. Constantina adds that "the rest of life here is not cheap either: going out to dinner is easily 30 to 40 euros."

For Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity University in Dublin, the dazzling transformation of Ireland thanks to tech giants partly explains the current crisis.

“For decades, Ireland mainly exported its inhabitants. Then, with its economic growth, it began to create jobs, retain its young people, and even attract workers from all over the world.”

"The question therefore arises as to whether the country is capable of building housing, infrastructure, schools, hospitals... Everything that this new population needs, raises Ronan Lyons. Today, 70,000 housing units should be built per year. However, the country will perhaps only build 40,000 this year and even this objective remains difficult to achieve."

In recent years, however, measures have multiplied: rent control, aid for first-time buyers, development of social housing. But the crisis persists because Ireland continues to run behind its own growth.