US-based Salon has labelled Dublin a prime example of a phenomenon which has seen income inequality grow around the world in the wake of the recent recession.

The news site listed Dublin alongside seven other cities including New York, LA, San Francisco, London, Nairobi and Jakarta as seven major metropolises where the planet’s "exploding income inequality” is displayed most vividly.

The numbers were compiled by comparing cities' rankings in Knight Frank’s recent survey of property prices around the world with their levels of homelessness.

Salon outline the effects that the economic downturn had on Irish society and says that real estate is booming as investors pump money into the market to snap up post-crash deals. They also note that Dublin is currently experiencing homelessness at record levels since the recession.

The article suggests that the current surge in real estate prices represents a classic property market bubble. It warns that if it is a bubble, and it bursts: “The people who will likely be most hurt following the pop will be the city’s most vulnerable, after the social programs they depend on are eviscerated by austerity.”

While the government has held its line that there is not an inflated property market forming in the capital, each new set of figures raises more concerns about the rapidly increasing prices.

Speaking in July, after the publication of CSO statistics showing that house prices in Dublin had increased by 24.4% in a twelve-month period, Taoiseach Enda Kenny refused to admit that there was a bubble emerging and instead insisted that prices are rising due to "the law of supply and demand”.

Knight Frank’s index tracks the performance of property markets around the world. It comments that “Ireland’s staggering rebound” has continued over the last 12 months. In 2012, Ireland ranked 54th in the survey, this year the country was ranked third, in between Turkey and Colombia. Dubai is ranked first and the UK is fifth.  

Salon's measuring of levels of homelessness against property prices is a crude metric. If the article measured GDP against levels of homelessness the rankings would look different. Dublin might not be the playground for the rich that the Salon headline suggests, but it is a great place to look if you have some cash and want to make some more.