John Walsh: The government must stop backtracking on the need for institutional investors

It’s a no-brainer that large funds have to be part of the solution to the housing crisis, whatever the populist cheerleaders might say

The view among some opposition parties that there is no role for the private sector in the supply of housing is errant nonsense. Picture: Getty

The Central Bank’s mortgage lending rules were probably the most important reform introduced in the wake of the financial crisis. They anchor property prices in the real economy and ensure there won’t be another credit-fuelled bubble.

But caps on the size of loans available to mortgage applicants and rules on the deposits relative to the value of a property have enormous consequences for the wider market.

Nobody can reasonably argue that the Central Bank’s macroprudential ...