54 thoughts on “No Rent Controls, You Say?

  1. huppenstop

    More a case of minimum rental standards (in terms of what is considered habitable) rather than rent controls, I would say.

      1. majo

        Like a socialist kip country you mean?, real countries let the market meet supply, without government interference

        1. ahjayzis

          I’m with this complete idiot. Let’s hope Germany takes note and follows our illustrious example.

          Living in London, a fellow “real” country, after living in Spain and Germany, I really appreciate paying twice as much for a flat half the size, that is colder, damper and darker than the palaces I was forced to endure in those socialist hellscapes.

        2. Jess

          Yes self regulation has such a spiffing record in this country due to peoples natural virtue and abhorrence of greed and exploitation.

          Blessed be to Rand

        3. Janet

          Socialist kip ? Everyone getting an education, health care and standards in just how hard you can be screwed by landlords? Sounds like hell.

        4. well

          “real countries let the market meet supply, without government interference”

          worked out well for hong kong right? shanty towns on the roofs of skyscrapers

      2. huppenstop

        I’m not saying that they are mutually exclusive, just pointing out that this instance looks more a case for having minimum standards of habitability. This place shouldn’t be rented out at all. Controlling the rent ceiling isn’t relevant here, is all (in my view). A reply to Bodger’s assertion that “this is what happens” when we don’t have rent controls :)

        1. Medium Sized C

          Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
          It could be behind either of the two doors on show.

          You not seeing a bathroom in pictures on Daft is no basis to call it illegal.

        2. McMacalot

          Just do your business in the washing machine, set the dial to “flush”, turn it on, and hey presto! There’s also a setting for “bath” obviously.

          1. fmong

            you said “And we have them. I’m not sure this actually violate them though.”

            I said “oh yeah, how’s that working out for us?” and posted a link to the fact that 90% of rentals are below stand… point being there’s a 9 in 10 chance it does violate code, but sure who cares no one is going to do anything about it anyway.

            I’ll ignore your last comment, should I just STFU and have a LOL?

    1. scottser

      rental standards have been in place for quite some time now, for both rent supplement and housing applications.

          1. Don Pidgeoni

            Why can’t they just be good middle-class go-getters like Tony instead of choosing to have no money?

  2. DPMullen

    It’s being advertised as a ‘Studio Apartment’?!?! Jaysus wept – using that logic, I live in a 12 bed Château!

  3. Rob_G

    Rent controls won’t solve the problem of too much money chasing too few apartments; too difficult/expensive to administer, will encourage dodgy practices (landlords will just take the max. allowed rent + the highest backhander offered).

    The quickest way to get more properties on the market would be to reduce the amount of taxes/charges that landlords have to pay (short-term), and zone more land for development (long-term); or even better, Nama could release some of the many hundreds of apartments in Dublin that it is currently sitting on.

    1. ahjayzis

      So it’s socialist to try and regulate a mess of a market, but totally free marketty to gift money in the form of tax breaks to landlords. Right.

      1. Rob_G

        If you try to regulate the market by introducing rent controls, it will cause some landlords to leave the market, making the problem worse than it is now. Decreasing the cost of being a landlord will increase the number of landlords entering the market, as they can make more money. Quickest and most straight-forward way of increasing the number of suppliers to the rental market.

        1. well

          “it will cause some landlords to leave the market, ”

          why would they leave the market and choose to earn no money at all?

        2. ahjayzis

          What does it mean when a landlord leaves the market? Do they just decide to let the house go empty and forgo any cash? Do they demolish the house and build a few gazebos in their own back garden?

          We NEED to get the amateur guards and taxi drivers with a single buy to let out of the market and let it be run as a business like elsewhere.

          1. scottser

            you’re absolutely correct, ahjayzis. not only are there too many amateur landlords out there, there are plenty of professional housing agencies who should be allowed to be the core agencies for rental housing provision. the sad thing is that it’s an easy fix. you’d wonder how many TDs and their cronies have investment properties to protect.

        3. SOMK

          Surely if they leave the market and they aren’t resident then the house will be sold, especially considering newly introduced deposit limits should put some manners on runaway house prices long-term? If they can’t afford to rent it they’ll sell it to someone who can, if no one can afford to live there what are they going to do, burn it down or sell it to someone who’ll live there.

          Decrease the cost you get more people buying to let, essentially asset speculating, ie. using money to leverage even more money out of someone who needs a home more than they do, the rich get richer and in the process add NOTHING of value to the economy, just leeching money out of it that could be used for goods and services that are productive, that actually make something, you cause an artificial housing bubble (see below) to rise further, because BTLs are generally older cash buyers (so not as affected or well able to meet the rental banks new deposit rates for mortgages).

          We need more landlords to solve the housing/rental crisis? Pull the other one, it’s like saying the reason there’s a famine is because they aren’t enough shops!

          “The vacancy rate is much lower in the capital than elsewhere, at 8.2% in 2011, with some areas much lower still, including South Dublin at 5.4% . Yet the vacancy rate in the latter was generally less that 2.5% in the 1990’s so the current rate is by no means low relative to the past trend for the area. The implication from the census data is therefore that the current perceived supply shortage is a puzzle, as there should be large swathe of property available to meet any additional demand. The rise in rental yields may prompt a change but there would appear to be some other impediments on the supply side of the market.”

          http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1026834.shtml

          1. scottser

            there are plenty of options for landlords to lease long-term to the council under RAS or LTL schemes if they don’t want the hassle of being professional landlords. it’s just right now the market is being driven by nothing short of opportunism and greed.

    2. Medium Sized C

      I don’t buy that shite at all.
      Are we supposed to believe that the recent explosion in prices is down to taxes?

      It is nothing to do with taxes, it is gouging.
      Landlords aren’t paying €300 more a month more than they were last year.
      The market just favours the landlords and they feel it is their right to rack people.

      1. Rob_G

        The rise in prices is due to demand, putting rent controls on apartments will do nothing to ease demand, but would mean that there would be fewer people renting out property, making the problem worse.

        1. Jimi

          or a limit on the amount of profit a landlord could make off a single property would encourage them to develop larger portfolios, and create increased demand for higher density housing (ie actual purpose built apartment blocks rather than tenements) and lower demand,causing the market to level off,

    3. Lilly

      Nama would prefer to sell them off in one lot to a German corporate landlord. Less hassle don’t ya know.

  4. Max Bialystock

    In terms of regulating the market, why aren’t we looking at longer lease terms and limits to rent increases?

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