Supposedly, the free housing market spawns developers who can do it cheaper, faster and more efficiently to produce a superior product. These are glories sung by the choir in the Church of Neoliberalism. While showing some wear and tear, that institution still attracts worshippers in many nations. Ireland is one.
And when down and dirty earth-anchored studies suggest the opposite is true: that when it comes to truly affordable housing, public and non-profit institutions can do it just as efficiently and considerably more cheaply? Do the Neoliberals change their hymnbook? They do not.
They cleanse their sins by taking a warm bath at public expense (the incense of political cronyism hanging faintly in the air). The Irish government, for one, sells undeveloped public land to developers at a substantial bargain rate. It buys back a small fraction upon which truly affordable housing has been built (the public interest object of the entire exercise), doing so at the much higher market rates for developed land.
As for the majority of housing built on the former government-owned land and sold for considerable profit? The neoliberal faithful gather after the service in the church basement to divvy up the spoils.
Hmm.
Read more at the Irish Examiner: Why is the State selling public land to private developers for a fraction of its value?
