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Varieties of Home Ownership: Ireland’s Transition from a Socialised to a Marketised Policy Regime

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  • Michelle Norris

Abstract

This article presents an historical institutional analysis of government supports for home ownership in Ireland. In doing so, it critiques the interpretation of the Irish home ownership system and, by extension, of this tenure’s meaning and role as a neo-liberal project which dominates the comparative housing literature. Rather than liberal policies, the article argues that between the 1920s and 1970s, government subsidies slowly expanded, in terms of generosity, variety and universal availability, to such a scale that Ireland’s home ownership regime was effectively ‘socialised’. This regime (not market forces) raised home ownership to 80 per cent of households. However, ideological, financial and socio-economic supports for this regime weakened and during the 1980s home ownership was marketised as universal subsidies were withdrawn and mortgage lending privatised. The implications of this redirection were initially disguised by low house price inflation, but when the economy boomed in the 1990s home ownership contracted sharply to levels which could be supported solely by the market.

Suggested Citation

  • Michelle Norris, 2016. "Varieties of Home Ownership: Ireland’s Transition from a Socialised to a Marketised Policy Regime," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 81-101, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:chosxx:v:31:y:2016:i:1:p:81-101
    DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2015.1061107
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Baker, Terence J. & O'Brien, L. M., 1979. "The Irish Housing System: A Critical Overview," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BS17.
    2. Cormac Ó Gráda, 1992. "Money and banking in the Irish free state 1921–1939," Working Papers 199203, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    3. Angel, Schlomo, 2000. "Housing Policy Matters: A Global Analysis," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195137156.
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    Cited by:

    1. McGinnity, Frances & Russell, Helen & Privalko, Ivan & Enright, Shannen & O'Brien, Doireann, 2021. "Monitoring adequate housing in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT413.
    2. De Bromhead, Alan & Lyons, Ronan C., 2021. "Rooted to the soil: The impact of social housing on population in Ireland since 1911," QUCEH Working Paper Series 21-08, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    3. Dorothy Watson & Eoin Corrigan, 2019. "Social Housing in the Irish Housing Market," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 50(1), pages 213-248.
    4. Kholodilin, Konstantin A. & Kohl, Sebastian & Müller, Florian, 2022. "The rise and fall of social housing? Housing decommodification in long-run perspective," MPIfG Discussion Paper 22/3, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    5. McGinnity, Frances & Privalko, Ivan & Russell, Helen & Curristan, Sarah & Stapleton, Amy & Laurence, James, 2022. "Origin and Integration: Housing and family among migrants in the 2016 Irish Census," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT422.
    6. Eoin Corrigan, 2019. "The Scale and Impact of the Local Authority Rent Subsidy," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 50(1), pages 159-211.
    7. T. van der Valk, 2019. "Quid pro quo: the institutional environment and the allocation of household wealth," Working Papers 19-25, Utrecht School of Economics.
    8. Grotti, Raffaele & Russell, Helen & Fahey, Éammon & Maître, Bertrand, 2018. "Discrimination and inequality in housing in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT361.
    9. Desmond Elaine & O’Sullivan Siobhan, 2024. "Housing and the West Cork islands: a national crisis in microcosm," Administration, Sciendo, vol. 72(2), pages 29-52, May.
    10. Umfreville Paul & Sirr Lorcan, 2020. "Reform and policymaking: Theory and practice in the Irish housing context," Administration, Sciendo, vol. 68(4), pages 215-236, December.
    11. de Bromhead, Alan & Lyons, Ronan C., 2023. "Social housing and the spread of population: Evidence from twentieth century Ireland," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    12. Kohl, Sebastian, 2018. "A small history of the homeownership ideal," MPIfG Discussion Paper 18/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

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