Anon writes:
Just had a recent example of the insanity of rent in Dublin at the moment. I live in Dublin 2 in a lovely but smallish two bed apartment. I pay 1200 quid a month with my boyfriend which I know is a great deal, I struck gold with the soundest landlord ever! We have been here about a year and a half. However the apartment next to mine which is also 2 bed and marginally bigger is currently on daft for 1900 quid! That is a 700 euro difference in apartments literally next door. On CSO average price for a 2 bed in this area is 1400 so its still 500 more! Just thought I would share!
(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)
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Years and years of capitalism and people still don’t understand the principle of supply and demand.
The demand was been forced by a series of questionable decisions.
HAS been forced…
I think people understand capitalism, the problem is there’s no desire to even discuss an alternative. So people will just continue to complain about the inevitable symptoms.
Bullcrap. Even capitalism in practice has controls, the rental market has none.
controls are too late now with how high the rents have gone, they needed to be in years ago, having a max yearly increase % and also a max yearly decrease % would have made a big difference.
People understand. They also understand that even the free market has checks and balances.
According to the PRTB which produces a quarterly report on actual rents charged in the 300,000 tenancies it monitors, rents for Dublin apartments have increased by 15% in the five quarters to September 2014, they probably increased another few % in the past five months. That’s for Dublin overall, city and county, and property people will tell you that city centre apartments have increased more than that. You’re probably right to be worried about a price increase.
The Fine Gael and Labour government has refused to introduce rent controls (though remember you can generally challenge a rent increase at the PRTB and the landlord must show it’s reasonable), has sat on its hands with introducing a third party deposit scheme, has allowed a full blown housing crisis to develop in Dublin particularly, refused to increase rent supplement payments because that would lead to landlords scalping and generally behaved like disinterested spectators. Would the crazy socialists do any worse?
But fg/labour have introduced a ton of extra taxes on landlords which the tenant will pay.
Supply and demand. Move further out. Get a better job. Emigrate. In short get used to it.
Sure, thats great advice
@D – simplistic, patronising and totally useless advice.
It is important that people limit their options to those dictated by absolute silent and submissive acceptance of current conditions with no recourse to any sort of broader change or examination of root causes.
Just call me ‘submissive acceptance of current conditions’ for short.
It’s amazing how people want to rent in the city center for the same prices you would pay an hours commute away. If you want to walk into town you have to pay for the privilege. There are lots of places for cheaper in the outer suburbs where most of the landlords live.
Sorry but I grew up an hours commute from town, and you can get a 4 bedroom semi-D for 1200 in Celbridge. Where, an hours commute away, is it 600 quid a bed?
While there are genuine hardship cases and unexpected big rent jumps, AlisonT is right for the most part. Sometimes you just need to cut your cloth to measure.
unfortunately, the only cloth most folks can afford to measure is the size of a pair of speedos. and i don’t need to remind you that most irish folks look terrible in speedos.
Estate Agents who are letting apartments on behalf of the owners are pressurizing the owners into increasing the rents even when the owners refuse. They are just being plain greedy little twits.
And the Estate Agents doing this are the big names you all know.
I have first hand experience of this and I can name names. But no need, just narrow it down to three and you’ll be about right.
Name them or shut up
Rent is mental in Dublin. Lucky i have a mortgage which is less than rents at the momen. But in the apartment block i live, Dublin 8, a one bed is €900-€1000. Iv lived in D8 all my life and no where should be that price.
A system similar to the one in New York would be ideals. Rent controls, rent caps and rents cannot rise more than the area its in. Landlords spew out this idea ‘there is a demand’ , there is a demand but that does not mean its ethically correct to screw the working man to the wall. Alas human nature is human nature…
If you don’t address supply, rent controls simply won’t work. Why? Because landlords will have the financial motivation to risk moving onto the rental black market rather than be hampered by inferior rents and desperate renters will have no choice. That’s a worse situation as no tax is paid.
As much as everyone loves the idea of a simple, silver bullet solution, when you regularly have over 100 people turning up for a viewing for a one bedroom apartment, the only real solution to this is to sort out supply.
No rent paid? Like the entire apartment block that I live in, all unregistered apartments, all landlords collecting cash in hand? Living in Dublin 8 by the way.
not true. the way to sort out the ‘black market rental’ issue is to make it illegal to rent privately. all rental properties should (could) be allocated through local authorities or voluntary housing agencies. this would ensure tenants are risk assessed, properties are regulated and tenancies are fixed – all with state oversight under the housing acts. the PRTB should have real teeth, and be far more accessible. and free.
We finally got the rent increase I’ve been expecting for last 6 months. 7.4% and we are kinda relieved. It could have been a lot more, for the area that is.
That said the words “I don’t have much choice” were used by the landlord, which irked me slightly as there is definitely a choice.
Capitalism or not, control is definitely needed in the Irish rental market. What’s the figure? 40% of sitting TDs are property owners??
Of course he has a choice, landlords love rent increases, they don’t care how the tenant is screwed- it’s a profit driven market..
sorry some do care, some want decent tenants and if get em they don’t want to shaft em with increases just out of greed. some folk are accidental landlords and once the mortgage is covered they are happy. so please have a bit of consideration for the decent ones of which there are many.
your landlord ‘doesn’t have a choice’? why, did his mortgage go up?
The ‘supply and demand’ excuse for the current rental/housing crisis in Dublin is bollocks, the government should introduce rent-caps, and this should have been done years ago, but they won’t because they want the rents to increase in order to appease the landlord class in this country. People wonder why we live in such an unfair, unequal and corrupt society, you only have to look at the Dail members declarations of interests and see where the power lies in this country. There are vested interests in this country who aim to keep things just as they are- unequal and unfair. In the meantime- the ordinary people scrape by, we worry about rents, jobs, access to health and education, while the real players above us dangle the carrots, pull the strings and watch their wealth increase.
Lol….the “landlord class”.
Here’s a small insight into the high life:
2006 – Buy apartment with GF
2008 – Break up and rent it out
2009 – 2014 – Cover shortfall in mortgage, pay tax on rent received (even though it doesn’t cover mortgage), pay NPPR, pay PRTB fees, Pay upkeep of apartment at whim of tenant (paint that wall or I’m moving out, change that carpet or I’m not moving in etc). Take every mortgage rate increase on the chin.
All this while living at home with your parents again because you can’t afford to rent anywhere due to the outgoings described above. Plus having to deal with rent supplement tenants not paying rent, breaking the lease early, and trashing the place before legging it.
As soon as rents start going back up, though, “CAP ALL THE RENTS”. If the rent in your place goes up, then move somewhere it’s cheaper. If everyone does that, they’ll stop increasing.
I’d like to live in a 3 bed on Griffith avenue, but I can’t afford it, so I don’t.
Why rent out the apt if you can’t afford it, or want to deal with the hassle?
I don’t agree with the monstrous increases, but just to make a point nobody complained when rents bottomed out. In 2007 I was paying €850, in the same block my friend got his for €600 that was 2011,He has a sound landlord so rent is still only €690.
surely the whole point is that a properly regulated and functioning rental market simply does not allow for these wild fluctuations? if rents are stable and increasing at a set rate then you wouldnt have this messing.
Be interesting to know how many members of the Dail rent. Not out of envy, just out of interest given how many people this affects.
The OP could hang a note on their door stating “We only pay 1200 per month” so prospective renters will see
it. Of course, that might result in their rent being raised. Or it might make the folks renting the property question the high price. Just an idea…