Housing wealth, debt and stress before, during and after the Celtic Tiger

Compared to many other western European countries the Republic of Ireland is distinguished by historically high rates of home ownership. In 1971 60.7 per cent of Irish households were home owners compared to 50 and 35 per cent of their counterparts in Britain and Sweden respectively (Kemeny, 1981). In addition to socioeconomic factors such as the predominately rural and dispersed population distribution, these levels of home ownership rates were driven by extensive government support. Direct government supports for first time home buyers covered approximately 15 per cent of the costs of an average suburban home in the late 1970s and during this decade, government provided half of all mortgage loans, as the commercial mortgage market was underdeveloped (O’Connell 2005; Fahey, et al, 2004). Furthermore, since the 1930s social housing tenants have enjoyed the ‘right to buy’ their dwellings, at a substantial discount from the market value and, uniquely in western Europe, no ongoing taxes are levied on owner occupied homes (O’Connell and Fahey, 1999). These supports appear particularly generous in view of the underperformance of the Irish economy which, apart from a brief period in the 1960s/ early 1970s, declined or stagnated for much of the 20th Century. As a result, population growth followed a similar pattern, as despite a high birth rate, emigration was also high, particularly in the 1950s and 1980s (Kennedy, et al, 1998).