Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Significant amounts of money are being made and have been made over the years by developers simply flipping land. Nothing speaks to the issue of the financialisation of housing more than the practice of land being bought, flipped, literally overnight sometimes, and nothing being developed. Genuinely radical measures, such as those called for by my colleague, Senator Rebecca Moynihan, must be introduced to address the issue of windfalls arising from the rezoning of lands.

I read yesterday in the commercial property section of The Irish Timesabout a parcel of land in Laytown in my constituency. It is not zoned for housing and would ordinarily sell for about €15,000 an acre, but it has been put on the market now for approximately €72,500 per acre. That has been done in the hope, from the estate agent's perspective, that the land may be rezoned in 2027. This speaks to the issue of the financialisation of housing as being a major issue. The Minister of State understands this and we need measures to be brought in urgently to address these problems.

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