In the article Housing Much Harder To Afford (September 1) many references were made to the reasons for this dilemma. However, the comments of the author, an economics officer at the Central Bank, studiously eschewed two of the fundamental causes behind the debacle associated with this current scenario.

The prime candidate for culpability contributing to the present situation is the extremely irresponsible - bordering on reckless - lending policies of our financial organisations, all of whom adopted a totally short-sighted and rapacious agenda.

The exact same charge could be levelled against the government which has over-saturated the housing market with the issuance of a veritable plethora of unsustainable building permits and the granting of carte blanche to continue unabated with this unmitigated disaster. (Take a close look at Spain to truly evaluate the folly of this policy). It is an absolutely horrendous infliction to be blind but what is equally restrictive is to have no vision!

Finally, and this is a common misinterpretation and fallacy, it was also reported that the National Statistics office (NSO) had declared that in 2004 approximately 77 per cent of households were the proprietors of their dwellings. Like most people they seem to confuse possessing the accredited ownership of their home with, in actuality, "owning" a mortgage, which is poles apart and even more worrisome given the current financial quagmire we find ourselves in.