Gaffs: Why No One Can Get a House, and What We Can Do About it

by Rory Hearne

The book that has been waiting to be written – how Ireland’s housing policy has locked an entire generation out of the housing market and what we should do about it.

”Clear, cogent and persuasive” – Fintan O’Toole



Millennials are the first generation in Ireland to be worse off than their parents. Trapped in a game of rental roulette, stuck living at home as adults, and many on the brink of homelessness, the Irish housing crisis has defined the lives of an entire generation – and it is set to continue.


With housing costs in Ireland the highest in the EU, the property ladder has been kicked from under thousands. So how did we get here … and how do we break the cycle?


In Gaffs, housing expert Rory Hearne urges us to think about the people behind the statistics, and shows us that there is a way towards a future where everyone has access to a home.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Irish Literature, Ireland, Audiobook

352 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2022

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

I agree that the Irish housing sector is in an awful mess and in need of drastic state action, but this is a poorly written book. The author doesn't try to build an argument or convince the reader, instead there are sweeping generalisations, over-simplifications and broad claims unsupported by evidence.

I couldn't make it past 100 pages because there were just too many errors. It felt like the author was throwing the kitchen sink into his criticism of the housing market, using every possible criticism even if they didn't really make sense or even contradicted each other. At times he complains when rental houses are bought (taking them off the rental market) but other times complains when houses are bought to rent (leaving less houses for people who wish to buy).

The author has such a rigid and dogmatic approach that he presents the housing market before the 1980s as a glory time when housing wasn't governed by profit and even lists Ballymun and Moyross as examples of local government success in building houses (I'm not making this up!). He never even considers that government housing might have any drawbacks or downsides, his analysis is completely one-sided.

There are quite a few claims made without any evidence, like the claim that landlords are demanding some tenants pay with sex, as if it was a common feature. At another point it is claimed that developers only want to build high rise accommodation because it means higher profits and is a sign of wealth (no evidence is given on the profit margins of high rises). It's claimed that vulture funds have bought properties and then evicted people and significantly raised the rents (no evidence is given on the number of people evicted or by how much the rent supposedly was raised).

I looked it up and it turns out the author ran for election in Dublin South-East in 2007 for People Before Profit (the banner under which the Socialist Workers Party contests elections) which might explain why the book is so one-sided.

[Kilianten · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most disappointing book I've ever read.

I read nearly exclusively non-fiction. A good nonfiction Irish book is a rarity. I will continue to search for one becuase this is not it.

Author is completely biased. His anti capitalist rhetoric blinds him. He makes sweeping statements without giving evidence.

He is against high rises becuase theyre profitable... no explination given. Theyre just bad becuase they're profitable. He wants to build all these new houses... yet there is no space for them precisely becuase there are no high rises. Every inch in dublin is used up. Single family homes are highly inefficient in terms of land use (and heating, maintanence, plumbing etc). So why is he so adamently against them without reason?
High rise profitable. Profitable bad. Capitalism bad.

"the market will be as successful as possible for private developers and property investors, but it will always be a failure for those in need of a home"
No explanation for this. Just presented as fact.

He implies the media is complicit in the housing crisis during the celtic tiger? How? Becuase some newspapers had whole pages devoted to advertising property. And... they were making money from this... wow... shocking stuff. Movie theaters are responsible for Harvey Weinsteins actions as they made money showing his movies! Why? No. No explination for you

The reason houses are such a good investment is becuase their prices increase in time, while, due to huge government spending (which the author wants more of), your money decreases in value becuase of inflation. Its not smart people's fault in seeing the writing on the wall. The government hands out "free" money and keeps people from working during covid, inflation skyrockets. A house is a safe store of value becuase cash isnt. Becuase of stupid policies and keynesian economics that this author advocates.

Absolute trash book. Couldnt finish it.

[Aisling Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A MUST read! So much information about the housing crisis in Ireland, really eye opening, recommending it to everyone I meet

[Monica Thorne · Rating 3 out of 5]

oversimplifications were a bit wild at times & he gets repetitive towards the end - overall a good (broad) book about the housing crisis, though.

[Daryl Feehely · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and infuriating account of all the ways the Irish housing sector is in a complete state of disrepair due to the decades of bad policy and neoliberal ideological decisions taken by Irish governments.

There is a lot of repetition in the book, however the topic is so important it warrants being stated multiple times how homelessness, lack of social & affordable housing, and the commoditisation and financialisation of all aspects of housing are policy decisions that have caused the crisis, and they are in fact reversible and not intractable as the main political parties would have the population believe.

The book delivers a one-two punch by describing the effect each aspect of the failing housing situation has on different areas and people in Irish society, followed by a manifesto of the changes needed to fix it. Most importantly, the book is a call to protest. A protest with the primary goal to add the right to housing to the Irish constitution.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had great expectations of this book - a respected professor in a respected University writing about the Housing crisis. I hoped for balance - what works, what doesn't, the pros and cons of different policies.
The entire book is the complete opposite - Mums and Dads are wrong to help their children buy a house, workers are wrong to put money into pension schemes that in turn invest in Housing, the current government is just wrong, full stop.
There is not one reference in the book as to where the author gets his information, he just pulls quotes out of mid-air.

I don't disagree with most of his arguments - homelessness should be a thing of the past, we should turn our empty buildings into quality housing - but this is just a badly written and very badly edited book

[Maryk13 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible! Everyone should read this book. Either you live in Ireland or not , you learn a lot about the global trends in housing and how no one now can afford a home.
Excellent *****

[Vanessa Roulston Mooney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened as an audiobook
Very repetitive in parts but definitely opened my eyes to the depth and extent of the issue - the housing crisis is all I've known in my late teenage/young adult life but the whys and hows were not as clear to me. Definitely left with a better understanding of these, but the book was unnecessarily long and could have been more concise.

[Aleš Pitín · Rating 5 out of 5]

55/∞

❗️❗️ Gaffs by Rory Hearne ❗️❗️

Why No One Can Get a House, and What We Can Do About it

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📚 Length: 352 pages
🔊Audiobook: 13 hours and 57 minutes

Why you should read this book?

💡This book talks about severity of Irish housing crisis.

💡 To learn about inhuman living conditions in Ireland.

💡 You’ll learn why Irish government does not want to solve it.


Gaff means house in Irish English. 🇨🇮 While Ireland appears to be one of the richest countries by GDP in the world, 🌍 in reality it is not. In reality, Ireland's GDP is just a little bit higher than GDP of the Czech Rep. Wages in Ireland are high, but rents are even higher. Dublin recently made it to the second place of the most expensive cities to live at in Europe after London. This review will be a personal one, because I left the last year the continental Europe for my master’s degree and went to Ireland. Despite the fact I managed to organise everything beforehand (to secure a job interview, an accommodation, the letter of acceptance from the university), I was hit hard by the Irish housing crisis, because of dodgy landlord. This sparkled up my interest of what the FUCK is going on in Ireland with housing market and why so many people are becoming homeless in Ireland.

The evil landlord has terminated my contract after 2,5 months after my arrival. It happened exactly at the moment when I started my master’s degree. I tried to get the extension, but the evil bastard wanted me out for no reason. I think he was mentally unstable, but I can only guess. Landlords like him should be prosecuted and sentenced to the life imprisonment! I would give him death penalty, but der Kaiser 👑 would be merciful.

I wrote my dissertation about Landlord & Tenants rights. The problem with Irish protection of tenants is, that there is a very little protection until a tenant finishes certain time of the tenancy. Well, legally I got 3 months to move out while trying to hang on my job and university work. Although I was under massive pressure, It was manageable until the Christmas. After Christmas I was heading for a permanent burn out. My self-confidence was gone. I was walking cadaver. I left Ireland after staying for 1 year and 1 month - anything more than that could be fatal to my health. ☠️

…



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[Robyn Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was challenging to get throught this book, as someone who is a part of "Generation rent/Generation stuck at home with parents". But despite the taxing effort to get through this book, I would highly recommend it to everyone who is currently living in, has emigrated from or is planning on immigrating to: Ireland.

Let me be frank and say this book was difficult to get through, but NOT because it was poorly written - quite the contrary. It is written with a deep passion and love for Ireland and what a home means to a lot of people. The book explores the idea that: a home is not a house, not a financial asset to the economy, nor a profitable resource. It should be somewhere safe, stable, clean and warm that someone can rely on when it gets tough, difficult or come upon hardships in their life - or where someone can celebrate triumphs, mark birthdays, expand their families and make memories.

Sadly this is not the reality for a lot of people in Ireland. This book outlines the scary truth that a lot of people are currently living. It discusses the history of how the housing crisis as it stands (in 2023) has come to fester in all its shame - generation rent, social policy, homelessness, environmental impacts, vulture funds, mass emigration etc. It is written with fervour and empathy which (for me) incited and validated a deep rage a lot of the younger generation (and all generations I hope) have for the current housing situation across the country.

I could go on forever how this book has changed my view on the housing crisis. But ultimatey it's a 5 star read and I couldn't recommend it more.

[David Cowpar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rory Hearne expertly outlines how Ireland has gotten to a place where the age bracket of around 40 and under cannot afford a home of their own and have no home security and how this is linked to a negative impact not just on the individual (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs), a relationship (how does a couple start out with no home ownership prospects), a family (kids and insecurity in their home over high mortgages and rents and the ability of landlords to evict tenants with “no fault” evictions), society as a whole (mental health, how can you employ people if they have nowhere to live, longer commutes effecting work productivity) and the environment as a whole (longer commutes means more petrol and diesel used).

Not only does Hearne analyze and explain the situation, he also posits steps to change it, and fix it, plans for social housing and a state run/semi-state housing construction company, the use of vacant and derelict properties, compulsory purchase orders, rental house sales with tenant unaffected, a housing policy plan where the house is sold back to the Department of Housing to keep a permanent stock of affordable housing, taxes on REITS and investor funds, the right to housing being recognised in Bunreacht na hÉireann, the Irish Constitution, as would be in line with agreements Ireland has signed on to as part of the UN.

This needs to happen! There’s a petition: https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/gaffs4all

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

An extremely disappointing piece of work. I was excited to read this book after seeing it advertised and promoted so much. A book written about the current housing crisis by an academic from one of the leading universities could have been a seminal piece of literature on the situation. Instead, Hearne presented 340 pages of unfounded claims, with no references or support of his statistics, they may as well have been the results of a twitter poll. Constant mistakes and formatting errors plagued the book. Overall it was exceedingly repetitive and a drag to read.

[Emily Carruthers · Rating 5 out of 5]

How is this not being used as a structure to improve our situation as a whole? I have to say I had to stop so many times while reading this book as of how bleak things have gotten and why this was ever allied to happen in the first place. However, this will be a textbook and guide to actually help!

[anarcho · Rating 5 out of 5]

A potentially depressing but absolutely vital read for everyone in Ireland, especially those who are being affected by the housing crisis. There are a small number of disruptive typos and the rhetoric in the penultimate chapter is very repetitive, but overall it is an approachable, well-written, and illuminating book from a passionate voice.

[Yasmine Mcgavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an important book, everyone should read! Gaffs is a very well explained book, it did more than I expected. Rory Hearne, an expert on housing in Ireland explains why the housing crisis exists. As someone who is caught in generation rent - it made me sad to think about all the people suffering from the current housing policies. But I also feel hopeful for a better Ireland.

[Eabha Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

sorry for disappearing guys it just took so much out of me to read ab how bad the housing crisis in ireland is in such gory detail

originally bought this book as i wanted to be more educated/informed on how we got into this position and gather some sort of an idea of how to get out of it again and i hope ??? i have done that now. would recommend. #gaffs4all

[Alan Tennyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An urgent call to action from the magnificent Rory Hearne. The housing crisis in Ireland is no accident, it is government policy. It's required to inflate the balance sheets of banks and to enrich corporate landlords. Every Irish citizen should read this book. Thanks Rory

[Marykate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly enraging read that reveals how the architects of Ireland’s housing crisis don’t consider it a “crisis” at all. For the property developers, REITs, and FF/FG landlord-politicians, the immiseration of the Irish people is simply the market working its magic - exactly as they intended.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading if you have an interest in the future potential of Ireland

[Izzabella ☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

genuinely decent, had to read for college, but written in a manner that makes it interesting enough to read outside of college.

[Joe O'Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The housing and homelessness crises have dominated have Irish political life for much of the last decade, with their traumatising and dehumanising effects being felt in practically every part of the country. But these crises, as the academic Rory Hearne argues in “Gaffs”, are no accidents or strokes of misinformation, but instead the direct results of Government policies over decades. Hearne contends – in this polemical, well-meaning but flawed book – that Ireland sacrificed a generation of young people after the financial crash, by handing monopoly control over the housing market to a nexus of banks, developers and landlords. The Irish Government’s abject failure to build more than a trickle of social housing during the 2010s, combined with them allowing investment trusts (i.e. the notorious ‘vulture funds’) to buy up swathes of the country’s housing stock, have had the effect of cratering home ownership rates in Ireland.

Where “Gaffs” is most effective is when Rory Hearne describes the psychological impacts of the housing crisis, and of the grave personal instabilities that are inflicted on families when they cannot access the emotional safety that a secure home can provide. Where Hearne relates the personal stories of those devastated by homelessness or woeful housing conditions, “Gaffs” can be quite affecting.

“Gaffs” is impassioned, but repetitive - with Hearne continually and didactically hammering home his arguments about privatised, financialised nature of the Irish housing market - and the book could have been edited down by a third without losing the substance of its core arguments. Surprisingly for a book originating from an academic researcher, “Gaffs” doesn’t have an index, footnotes, or a bibliography, which seem curious oversights for what is evidently an exhaustive investigation of its subject.

I would also have hoped that “Gaffs” would have dealt more comprehensively with the history of social housing in Ireland, particularly as researchers like Ruth McManus have recently written excellent works on this topic. In particular, I would have liked to read more on how the Irish Government arrived at the ideological decision to “give up on social housing” (Hearne vaguely references the influences of Thatcher and Reagan and the kickbacks Irish political parties were receiving from developers, which as explanations for the abandonment of council housing seem unsatisfying). And if there were problems with the large-scale social housing estates built in the 60s & 70s, I think it is better for public housing advocates to address those arguments head-on rather than, as Hearne does, linking every failing back to neo-liberalism.

What “Gaffs” certainly isn’t short on is potential solutions, with Rory Hearne commendably detailing ways (the creation of a state construction firm, retro-fitting derelict buildings, taxing the vulture funds out of existence) that the housing crisis could eventually be resolved. As such, “Gaffs” is a worthwhile contribution to the debate about one of Ireland’s most intractable social issues.

[Dara Golden · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an incredibly interesting if infuriating book. I really enjoyed reading the first half to understand the history and context around the government decisions that led to the housing crisis. I felt the latter half was very repetitive and could have been massively reduced in length and still have made the same point.

Part of that is my general fatigue hearing about the housing crisis. I was more interested in reading the book for the high level economic understanding of how we got where we are and why rents and house prices are still so high which the first half of the book addresses well.

There was a large chunk of the book that was speaking about peoples individual stories which I didn't need to read because I know someone in basically everyone of the situations that he went into. This part of the book dragged for me. The latter half of the book talking about solutions was again interesting but not nearly as fleshed out as I would have liked in terms of the actual mechanisms by which the goals would be achieved.

There were a number of points throughout where the author provided evidence to back up his claims from surveys and etc but there was also as the book went on (potentially I just noticed it more) to use small scale examples and speculative statements that were not backed up as a sweeping generalisation for the topic he was speaking on.

Overall this is a good book to get understanding of the crisis its causes its effects and some potential solutions that could be undertaken. However it is repetitive, overly long, and at points not the best written. I would recommend this to most people in Ireland to get an understanding about why there is a crisis but would be telling them about the last couple of chapters dragging on.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting reading, but nothing really new to me as part of "generation rent." The writing style leaves a lot to be desired and felt very repetitive at times, but it is clear that a huge amount of research has gone into this book. It provided insight into how Ireland is in a crisis and will not sit well with people who view property as an investment rather than a home.

I agree with his call for protest and constitutional change, and of course a radical approach to end homelessness. However, it is a biased book fuelled by passion for a certain way of thinking. I don't agree with all Hearne's solutions to the problem, particularly the 'use it or lose it' - this treats average people, who may not be property investors/buy-to-rent landlords, the same as those who are. There needs to be more nuanced thinking on some of these points.

[Farrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of Facts and Information.
Found the book hard to read as it seemed to have been put together more as a college thesis/project.
However, it did highlight serious problems within the system.
The Housing situation in Ireland is a total mess, and every step forward leads to two steps back,
so much so, it seems hard to see a way forward.
The writer gave us lots of information to digest, but was lacking in telling us what we can or should do going forward.

[Saoirse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really, really wanted to give this more stars because the message of this book is so important and it's such a timely issue, but there were so many grammar mistakes in there and so many times the same ideas were repeated over and over... It could have been shorter and much more impactful in my opinion.
Still, what's expressed in this book is essential and everyone in Ireland - whether they're struggling with housing or not - should read this.

[Ronan Doyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brevity isn't only the soul of wit - it's the basis of effective argument too. Hearne's a striking example of that. Catch him at 600 words in an Irish Times op-ed and he'll lay things bare with a cold precision; at over 300 pages, he's endlessly overwrought. Rip out everything but chapters 2, 3, 12 and 13 and you'd have an effective little volume here; everything else is an overwritten audition for the political debut that was to come.

[Dayna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has excellent points and highlights some extreme inadequacies in the Irish government and housing system. As an Irish expat it educated me more than any news outlet or other article I’ve read. However it is mostly a frustratingly incoherent ramble with often extraneous statements / points of view. Really difficult read.

[Mick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Economically illiterate dross. Full of basic errors, no attempt to engage with (let alone rebut) alternative viewpoints, just assertion layered upon assertion. If you see it in a bookshop, don't just avoid buying it, hide it. The more people read this book, the less chance there is of housing in Ireland ever getting sorted out.

[Ella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t finish this one, left about 100 pages at the end - the first 5 chapters are great and full of info but after that it is so repetitive & I learned nothing new. Have a good understanding of the housing crisis now though very depressing 💅

[Edward · Rating 2 out of 5]

It felt the author continued to repeat the same points consistently