Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

People are once again queuing overnight to be in a position to buy a home. Last year we saw a large group waiting outside a development at Hansfield, in Dublin 15. This was a common feature during the Celtic Tiger era and was often seen as a tactic to drive a frenzy and allow for further price rises, even in the middle of a sale of a group of houses. Last Friday night and into Saturday morning in Ballincollig, in Cork city, 14 prospective buyers slept in their cars overnight in an effort to buy affordable homes. By the morning, this number had swollen to 100 people queuing to put down a deposit. Our local Labour Party candidate, Ciara Kennedy, very aptly described this as The Hunger Gamesfor housing, so desperate are people there to secure homes. Surely there is a better way of doing this. What can we do to stop such a frenzy and stop seeing people's homes - or their visions, their dreams of homes - evaporate? Are there plans to ask the Property Services Regulatory Authority to draw up a code of conduct for estate agents and developers to nip this trend in the bud if it is going to be a feature into the future, as it was in the past? A simple online queuing or ticketing system should be put in place and, as a last resort, perhaps we need to amend the Property Services (Regulation) Act.

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