A nation of renters?

Should you dump your aspirations of home ownership in favour of lifelong renting?

The property crash not only drove people out of their homes, it also soured many on the concept of home ownership in a market plagued by negative equity, arrears and plunging values.

A tiny, one-bedroom apartment adjacent to the Beacon Hotel in Sandyford hit the rental market last week in the usual form, a listing on an estate agency website. Within minutes, it prompted 25 phone calls from apartment hunters anxious to secure a viewing.

Soon, the agency was so overwhelmed with queries it had to remove the ad altogether. “The phones just rang off the hook,” said Eileen Sheehy, managing director of Sherry FitzGerald ...