4 January 2016
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Anti Austerity Alliance councillor Mick Barry this morning said that NAMA should be directed to organise a u-turn and to start prioritising the provision of affordable housing across the state.
His call came after daft.ie released its latest report showing a 13.1% jump in house prices outside of Dublin for 2015 with a whopping 20.7% increase in house prices in Cork.
The daft report links the house price hikes to a slump in housing supply and states that the stock of houses for sale is now down to 25,000 – lower than any other time in the last 9 years.
Cllr Barry said: “NAMA has the land and finance to provide 50,000 affordable homes. There is no reason why NAMA cannot become an affordable homes development agency. Instead of prioritising deals with global financial investors for speculative office and residential development NAMA should be directed by government to prioritise the provision of tens of thousands of affordable homes.”
Cllr Barry said that Fine Gael and Labour TDs need to be sharply challenged as to why the Minister for Finance is not instructing to NAMA to conduct such a u-turn.
