Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin, has said Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael policies are pouring fuel on the flames of ever-soaring house prices.

The candidate for Dublin Mid West was responding after the latest Central Statistic Office (CSO) figures for September showed house prices had increased by 10% in the previous 12 months.

Eoin Ó Broin said:

“That house prices have soared by a staggering 10% is shocking but not surprising. It is the predictable legacy of decades of bad housing policy by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s disastrous housing policies are pouring fuel on the flames of ever-soaring house prices.

“House prices are now 15% higher than they were during the height of the Celtic Tiger.

“The reality is that it is Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s failure to deliver the necessary supply of affordable homes that is putting homeownership even further out of reach of ordinary people.

“The knock-on effect of there not being enough new homes to buy is further turbocharging the prices of second-hand homes, which are 11% higher than one year ago.

“The legacy of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is that they have condemned so many of our young people, and people in their 30s and 40s, to living in their parents’ box rooms or to feeling they have no other choice but to leave for Canada, the US, New Zealand or Australia.

“People deserve so much more than this. They deserve the opportunity to build a life, to start a relationship or to start a family for themselves here.

“Only a Sinn Féin government with Sinn Féin’s housing plan can bring affordable home ownership back into the reach of working people, while reducing council waiting lists and ending homelessness.

“A Home of Your Own is a game-changing plan to make housing affordable, bring homeownership back into the reach of working people, and restore hope for a generation.

“That is the future people deserve, and that is why housing will be the number one priority for a Sinn Féin government.”