Mayo auctioneer calls for ‘paradigm shift’ in housing policy – news – Western People

Kay McGuire, of Kilmaine, Co. Mayo, Managing Director of Galway Property Services, and new Junior Vice-President of IPAV, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers, has said housing policy needs a “paradigm shift” to address a number of persistent problems that have hampered property supply and affordability.

Speaking at the organisation’s annual conference at the Greenhills Hotel, Limerick, at the weekend, Ms McGuire said last month’s Housing Commission Report is a blueprint to address persistent impediments, particularly those involving planning, the provision of infrastructure, approval processes by State organisations and financing both within the State sector and elsewhere.

“Initiated by the Government this report has taken two and a half years of consideration. It must not be allowed to lie gathering dust amongst the libraries of reports on housing,” she said.

“Government might not agree with some of the recommendations but that’s okay, Commission members themselves didn’t always agree. Find alternatives. The critical thing is that they embrace the need for urgency,” she said.

In this regard what was crucial to effecting the shift needed was bringing together the varying elements of the State housing apparatus.

“Currently we have a single Government Department responsible for Housing – in name, and we have other Government Departments with involvement in particular areas of housing, including Finance; Justice and Social Protection, to name but three,” she said. “We have Local Authorities acting largely independently, often even within their own particular areas of responsibility.” She said it was critical that a more cohesive structure was set up urgently and that it would be time lined, even if it’s not the precise Housing Delivery Oversight Executive recommended in the Commission Report.

“Whatever the mechanism, housing policy must be coordinated, given whole of Government attention, and urgently. Otherwise we will not succeed in delivering the 212,500 to 256,000 homes deficit identified in the report,” she warned.

Speaking about the property market in Mayo Ms. McGuire said REA, Real Estate Alliance, recently reported that 20% of all sales in the county in the first quarter of 2024 were Landlords leaving the market.

“Whilst many of these houses will have been purchased by owner occupiers, which is wonderful, this level of loss of stock to the rental market is not sustainable as continued lack of properties on the rental market continues to put upward pressures on rents,” she said.

Kay McGuire returned to college in 2014. Awarded Student of the Year from DIT she attained a Distinction in a Higher Certificate in Property Studies. She also lectures on the Diploma Course on Property Management at TU Dublin. She lives in Kilmaine, Co. Mayo.