ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nature of the affordability problem that the housing boom has created and investigates some of the key policy responses to this crisis of affordability, focusing in particular at the provision of subsidised affordable housing. In particular, however, consumer can see the extraordinarily rapid increases in both new and second hand house prices in Dublin. On the economic side, low interest rates for entry to the EMU, high increases in employment, and wage and incomes increases from a growing economy put increasing pressure on the demand for housing. D. Downey argues that for households with above average earnings, affordability can mean a price barrier to entering home ownership that may lead to households putting the purchase of a house on hold and relying on the private rented sector. However, one of the key responses by government has been to introduce a number of schemes that provide subsidised affordable housing for purchase, mainly to first-time buyers.
