Haves and have-nots: How the tech jobs boom is steadily turning Dublin into a two-tier town

29 comments

1. We know from the CSO how many people are earning high salaries and so on and that is not the problem with the Dublin Housing market. The problems are: they are not building enough and not building enough at affordable prices, that the govt outsourced social housing to landlords, that a hell of alot of Dublin housing stock is obsolete and now investment funds are buying up huge amounts of residential property with the blessing of the govt policies.

   This is just an attempt to scapegoat tech workers and try to hide that 30+ years of neoliberall policies are to blame for the housing crisis.

2. It’s always mad reading the salaries over on r/DevelEire and fair play to the lads that can get them. Again the issue here is the lack of affordable options for other middle income workers in Dublin.

3. It’s an interesting take but it’s not my experience. I work in biopharma and while the wages are not that of tech, they are still competitive. The same can be said for financial services. In any society, you will always have some companies or a specific sector that pays more than others. I don’t think it’s tech vs the rest, there are multiple levels to it from the tech CEO down to the lowest paid jobs.

   Not to mention that there a numerous other pressures on the cost of housing that have nothing to do with tech workers’ salaries such as the operation of REITs and the the lack of supply.

4. honestly, its not tech companies fault dublin has such a housing crisis, its the local governments failures to even build the housing needed.

5. As it always was planning is at fault. I’m pretty certain that not one person involved in planning how Dublin develops actually lives between the canals.

6. Local Residents: “No you can’t build 10-story flats here, this is a neighborhood!”

   > Aren’t there mixed feelings from local residents, whose grown-up kids have gradually been pushed away from the area because of the extra €70,000 to €100,000 charged for modestly-sized two-bedroom terraced houses?

   > Were another handful of major job announcements to be made in the same area, would there be a single Stoneybatter home available for under €400,000?

   > How many of East Wall’s traditional community see the next generation of their family settling in the same area, or anywhere close?

   Also local residents: shocked_pickachu.jpg

7. Ultimately the only way to solve the housing crisis in Dublin is a scheme of social and affordable house building carried out by the government, not via private developers being paid on a scale not seen since the Marino and Crumlin developments in the 1930s.

   That’s it, there’s no other solution. Relaying on the market to provide housing simply does not work. It will never happen though.

8. In my experience a lot of the tech workers being paid as much as they say in this article are from other countries and the vast majority just come to Ireland for a few years before moving on to somewhere else (either the US, or their home country).

   Obviously some do stick around and may buy a house, but the majority never intend to.

9. A plumber is probably earning more than the fabled tech worker in Dublin at the moment.

10. Dublin is already well on its way to being a SF like city – similar mentality, they want the tech jobs and the money it brings in, but they also object to every high density housing development.

    In SF it’s got to the stage where it further splits with things going so expensive that the “regular” tech workers can’t afford to live their either and it’s only the upper tier exec level folks who can afford anything with 3 hour commutes being common, hence why everyone wants to work from home.

    This stuff has already been the downfall of SF and California in general with more high profile companies moving out of California to places like Texas. Dublin needs to learn this lesson fast or else future jobs will go elsewhere, in fact, they already are starting to.

11. Government will do nothing. It was always the plan. If you come from any other county and live in Dublin, you notice the stark inequality between the haves and have-nots. Nowhere is it more pronounced than Dublin.

12. Did Nursing after the leaving cert and i like it, but I was also offered a level 7 in computing on the CAO and deeply regret not going for it instead. Could be earning over 60k and not cleaning up shite for a living

13. Ah yes blame us for making something of ourselves.

14. Lack of housing is turning Dublin into turning the a two-tier town between those you can afford a house and those who can’t.

15. As ever the only answer is to build more housing (apartments) in the city centre. None of this is rocket science, despite the reams of newspaper ink given to it.

16. >When I was starting out in the world of work, a six-figure salary was something that only a tiny percentage of the highest achievers would think possible in their careers. In Dublin today, it’s not unusual in your 20s.

    This is total nonsense. There’s data readily available on this, about 14% of **households** earn [over 100k per year](https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-gpii/geographicalprofilesofincomeinireland2016/incomeinireland/), never mind your average 20-something in Dublin.

    There are some people earning great money. Good high paying jobs are great. We need to build more houses.

    ​

    >Take Workday’s recent announcement of 1,000 new jobs in the traditionally working-class northside area of Grangegorman.
    >
    >Aren’t there mixed feelings from local residents, whose grown-up kids have gradually been pushed away from the area because of the extra €70,000 to €100,000 charged for modestly-sized two-bedroom terraced houses?

    I dunno Adrian, you’re allegedly a journalist, did you ask any of them? Imagine trying to put a negative spin on 1000 highly skilled highly paying jobs. I live in D7 and I can walk to the Grangegorman campus from my house, I know the area well, this is a great boost.

    This is an extremely poor article. No mention of the lack of apartment accommodation in the city. No mention of the fact a huge number of tech workers are foreign and probably have no interest in buying in Ireland. Beyond that, it is basically harking back to some whimsical time when we were all poor but we were happy. Build more god-damn houses.

17. We learned all the wrong lessons from Ballymun

18. Good thing they pay shitloads of tax for the state to use appropriately however they see fit

    Big bonus ? State takes 52%

19. A few weeks back when these jobs were announced I pointed out that Dublin was going through a process of gentrification. I got absolutely slated for it (as if it was my fault for it happening). Not enough Irish people are going into STEM so we have to compensate by hiring in high skilled foreign workers. They’re good people who make very positive contributions to our country… but there is very little hope of non tech workers competing. If you consider the state spend on social housing and HAP your middle earner is getting squeezed from above and below.

    I’m not sure where these grads Collison says are getting €100k. He must be referring to the US. Most Irish grads are getting paid between €35-55k.

20. There are a few things that will stop it turning into SF, but yeah, do everything you can to nip this shit in the bud.

    Source – lived in SF for the last 20 years.

21. Or you could be like me, working in tech and making fuck all!

22. What a terrible take. You would think this guy’s solution would be to destroy Ireland’s tech industry rather than reform the planning and housing market

23. The o deveny gardens fiasco is a perfect example of how the govt couldnt care less about the housing issues facing people.
    But for some reason everybody turns on each other instead of those causing this problem.

24. Can’t believe I spent all this time looking to successive governments and their policies to address issues of housing supply. The real issue has been salaries at tech companies

25. Maybe the govt should not give free housing or HAP to leeches.

26. Expat here in tech. I got a mortgage here within 3 months of living here and bought a house to avoid the rent trap. My plan is to only live here for 3-5 years. I don’t care if I sell at a small loss or a gain, I just don’t want to live in substandard housing for more rent money. Downvote me or call me whatever, I’m just doing what I need to do to financially be better off. It’s the system. And I haven’t created whatever the situation is, I just work to live with what ecosystem I have in front of me. Assume your government has created the housing situation, which is sad.

27. Called this years ago, Ireland is being turned into San Fran light, but at least my international colleagues are enjoying their newly bought homes here, whilst my school friends emigrate.

    Lovely stuff altogether, totally fair and balanced.

    Edit: My experience is Limerick not Dublin btw.

28. Know a few people now born and bread in Dublin who have had to move out to commuters towns like Carlow, Port Laois, and Navan. It’s shameful that people can’t afford houses in their home town, so that a bunch of hedge funds can make their portfolios look that tiny bit nicer.

29. This is a strange article indeed. You must also view it from the prism that Adrian specialises in tech and is not an expert in social demographics or macro economics. I’d believe he’s mostly incorrect in his hypothesis to be honest. Guilty of emphasising or over playing links between facts that are more loosely tied together to impact the housing market.

    The tech industry ain’t the only one paying astronomical salaries. There’s plenty of medical firms in Dublin paying handsomely. And finance still pays very well.

    There always was, and always will be the have and have nots. Georgian Dublin is a permanent reminder when there was a true “have” /”have not” divide and it’s subsequent decline is an example of what happens when you send the “haves” away.

    The best future for the city is to retain and grow the number of high paying jobs and collect the taxes around the activities. This creates opportunities for locals both with direct jobs and in support service industries. Education being the key barrier to entry.