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  • Prices fell in Ireland (and Spain and lots of other places) because supply was higher than demand. They built more houses than there were buyers. There are houses built in such places in 2007 that have still never been lived in.

    There are plenty of towns in the UK where you can buy a second-hand house for less than it would cost to build it new, even if the land were free, which it never is.

    https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/130187429#/?channel=RES_BUY

    That house does not supply good vibes ofc, so you are right.

  • Prices fell in Ireland (and Spain and lots of other places) because supply was higher than demand. They built more houses than there were buyers

    I would tell you a different story which focuses on effective demand as the key driver, with supply as a sideshow. Very aggressive bank lending at high LTV and income multiples massively increased the spending power of the population (both owner occupied but crucially BTL). When the banks blew up, lending stopped, no-one could afford to pay the old prices and demand evaporated.

    It's not a story of 1,000 households wanting to live in a particular town and the housing stock expanding from 900 to 1,100 dwellings to drive down prices.

  • But, I mean, that’s still demand.

    In the 2008 crash impossible to separate the drop in demand and tightening of lending. The two were in the same death spiral feeding off one another.

    But it very much was a story of fewer people wanting to live in an area than there were houses for sale.

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