This morning.

Further to results from Daft.ie that showing rents now risen ‘by 70% on average – 87% in Dublin, 68% in the other cities and 53% elsewhere – from their lowest point’ a decade ago.

In Dublin rents are 30% higher than their Celtic Tiger peak.

The Social Democrats have called for an an emergency rent freeze across the country.

Soc Dem co-leader Catherine Murphy said:

“It’s not good enough that the government continues to throw struggling renters upon the mercy of a market where there is an acute lack of supply and where the going rates for rental properties are totally out of whack with many people’s incomes.

“In our Alternative Budget 2019, the Social Democrats proposed a two-year emergency rent freeze across the country. It is abundantly clear that rent pressure zones are failing to curb soaring rents. We need a stronger solution to the current crisis.

The only option now is for the government to bring in an emergency rent freeze that will at least give renters some certainty about their weekly or monthly outgoings.”

Rental Price Report (Daft)

Rents continue to hit all-time highs with 11.3% national rise – Daft.ie (RTÉ)

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50 thoughts on “Freeze

  1. Fact Checker

    Assar Lindbeck: “Next to bombing, rent control seems in many cases to be the most efficient technique so far known for destroying cities.”

    Discuss!

        1. Starina

          the 4% cap is clearly being ignored, seeing as how rent have gone up by 11% and would have gone up by much more without the “cap”, discuss.

          1. Rob_G

            The rent cap doesn’t apply to new developments, or buildings that have been substantially refurbished – they could bring the average up.

            Anything else that you would like me to explain while I am here – gravity, M2 money supply…

          2. Nigel

            You should tell ollie who seems to think that a rent cap that doesn’t apply to new developments is stifling new developments.

          3. Cian

            Rob_G – you don’t mean that the vulture landlords are actually charging higher rents for a brand-new apartments than for older ones?

          4. Rob_G

            @Nigel – if you build a new apartment, indeed the rent cap would not affect the price you rented it out at initially. But in future years the rent would be impacted by the rent cap, so it could act as a disincentive to investment.

          5. Nigel

            Hmm, but in that sense the rent cap is only a symptom. As it stands rents are unsustainable, and planning for further rent increases when so much of the country is screaming to the government to do something about high rents is perhaps more of a direct disincentive than the cap itself? The rent cap isn’t keeping land prices high or the planning process moribund and backward.

    1. Starina

      He appears to think welfare is a bad thing, so I would personally take anything he says on using regulation instead of leaving it to the vagaries of the free market with a grain of salt.

  2. john f

    Under the present system, the landlord is still liable to pay income tax, PRSI USC, property tax, maintenance, etc. etc. over half of what the tenant pays goes in taxes, then out of what’s left insurance, mortgage et cetera et cetera et cetera have to be paid.
    Sure enough, the rents are going up and the landlord is passing some of these costs onto the tenant. If the government was serious about reforming the market that them massively increase the amount of taxes paid on residential property & simultaneously impose some sort of rent control’s.
    However that’s not going to happen, at the moment all these taxes are a lucrative cash cow for the government. How else are they going to pay millions for consultants, millions in ridiculous frivolous legal fees, millions in public sector time off and waste billions everywhere else.

    1. Brother Barnabas

      “over half of what the tenant pays goes in taxes”

      no

      a landlord can write off insurance, maintenance, agent fees, mortgage interest (85%, soon to be 100%) etc

      tax is paid on what’s left – couldn’t possibly be half of rent received paid in taxes

      1. Fact Checker

        If the landlord has a high income from other sources (ie, job) then the highest marginal tax rate will kick in for all profit accruing from rent. That can be up to 55% (including USC and PRSI).

        So, yes, in certain cases half of a tenant’s rental payments will be returned to the exchequer.

        1. Brother Barnabas

          “then the highest marginal tax rate will kick in for all profit accruing from rent. That can be up to 55%… So, yes, in certain cases half of a tenant’s rental payments will be returned to the exchequer”

          for all profit, yes

          for all rent, very unlikely – unless the landlord has almost no expenses associated with the property (no mortgage, no maintenance costs etc). if so, he needs a better accountant

        2. Ollie Cromwell

          I agree.
          Homelessness is a problem.
          But if you shout wayciss simply because someone points out that a third of them are non-nationals and that perhaps offering to pay their return flight home rather than put them up in expensive,temporary accommodation might be one solution you’re no nearer to solving the problem.
          If you want my taxes to pay for an unskilled East European or Nigerian migrant and his family to scrounge off this country at least leave me the right to earn serious wonga to do so.
          Greed is good.
          Because EVERYONE benefits.

      2. john f

        Sorry I mistyped, it’s the LPT that is not tax-deductible. My overall point is that all these charges lead to higher rents. The situation is not as black and white as many make it out to be.

  3. SOQ

    Half of all rent increases goes to government and yet, who did they give the tax breaks to? The landlords.

    Says it all really.

  4. Ollie Cromwell

    Speaking as a landlord of multiple tenancies I can only say I receive commensurate remuneration for sound investment in the lean times.
    We didn’t all party.
    Well,not all the time anyway.
    Envy is a terrible thing.

      1. ollie

        ” mass homelessness ”
        Seriously? Out of a population of 4.7 million there are less than 10,000 classed as homeless. That’s 0.25%, hardly ” mass homelessness “!!

        What about those who are struggling to pay mortgages?

        1. Nigel

          10,000 is more than enough to trigger a crisis, especially when no relief seems forthcoming, and people struggling to pay mortgages are not in some sort of competition with people who are homeless, they’re just in danger of becoming them.

      2. Ollie Cromwell

        I agree.
        Homelessness is a problem.
        But if you shout wayciss simply because someone points out that a third of them are non-nationals and that perhaps offering to pay their return flight home rather than put them up in expensive,temporary accommodation might be one solution you’re no nearer to solving the problem.
        If you want my taxes to pay for an unskilled East European or Nigerian migrant and his family to scrounge off this country at least leave me the right to earn serious wonga to do so.
        Greed is good.
        Because EVERYONE benefits.

        1. Nigel

          We shout wayciss because you’re a wayciss and when a wayciss starts complaining about immigrants it’s obviously for wayciss reasons. Look, don’t blame me, it’s YOUR brand, it’s the persona you chose to project to burst the liberal bubble here.

          1. Ollie Cromwell

            Tell me exactly where I am being wayciss.
            If I wrote I hated immigrants and I wish them harm or that they should be forcibly repatriated I would indeed be wayciss.
            But I don’t.
            I employ non-nationals because I find them reliable,trustworthy and honest.
            But they all have a skill I’m prepared to pay for.
            I merely point out that offering unskilled and unlimited numbers of migrants easy passage under the EU’s freedom of movement means Ireland has no means of successfully planning for the future.
            Hence overcrowded schools,hospitals, and public services.
            How much new social housing needs to be planned and budgeted now for delivery in say 2-3 years time when it’s impossible to predict the demand ?
            These are difficult and unpopular questions to be asked but what you’re seeing now is a failure to ask such questions in the past.
            You reap what you sow.

          2. Nigel

            You’re constantly racist about Irish people, so it’s neither difficult to scale that up to you being a racist in general nor to reconcile it with your willingness to exploit immigrants as cheap disposable labour while simultaneously limiting immigrant access to the means of achieving security, education and advancement and trying to link immigration to problems which are entirely of our own making. I mean, i presume you know your ‘reasonable’ voice comes coated with layers of insincerity and nasty irony as a result of your other styles of comment, right?

          3. Ollie Cromwell

            In what way am I wayciss about the Irish ?
            I receive a tsunami of anti-English abuse on here and rarely respond.It’s part and parcel of free speech although the mods on here are selective with their deletions.Hey,that’s their choice and mine is not to post on here if I’m offended.
            You obviously believe in open borders.I think you’re a deluded idiot who pays no attention to the massive problems caused by such an idealistic and ultimately doomed political experiment.
            And I pay my skilled non-national employees a rate agreed between me and them.If they didn’t like it they’d go elsewhere.
            As I say,greed is good because EVERYONE benefits.
            Or,as the great Margaret Thatcher once said,socialism is fine until you run out of other people’s money to spend.

          4. Nigel

            You receive almost no anti-British abuse, no matter how fervently and obviously you try to provoke it, though it’s part of your calculated and performative anti-Irish racism to insist that you do. (Caveat: I reserve judgement on whether the tediously tribal sports banter qualifies as racist, I just don’t care.)

            I do not ‘obviously’ believe in open borders, though it’s a common accusation when someone takes issue with ant-immigrant racists, and it’s funny how you almost never meet avowed capitalists who truly believe in the free movement of goods and labour, let alone libertarians who disapprove of strict government controls of borders.

            I presume your pay rates start at the minimum wage.

            It’s surprising how much of capitalism ends up being socialised in one way or another.

          5. Ollie Cromwell

            You presume wrong.
            It’s obviously a while since you’ve employed skilled tradesmen.
            I’m not surprised.

    1. Starina

      Do you receive “commensurate remuneration” or “serious wonga”? Not surprised you’re a multi-property landlord.

      1. Ollie Cromwell

        Both.
        I have good tenants who live in good properties scrupulously maintained.
        I expect a decent return on my investments and today’s rents are a very decent return on my decision to invest heavily at a time when people were desperate to sell.
        I like to think I provide a valuable social service.
        There’s hardly a crime in that.

          1. Rob_G

            Trite soundbites – of course! Instead of building houses, let’s solve the housing crisis with these.

  5. ollie

    ” mass homelessness ”
    Seriously? Out of a population of 4.7 million there are less than 10,000 classed as homeless. That’s 0.25%, hardly ” mass homelessness “!!
    But……………… factor in real homelessenss, in other words all those who can’t afford rents and the real figure must be really high

  6. Anomanomanom

    Where are these figures coming from. Rent in dublin is well up over 30%. The 1 bed I was renting 2007 was €850, its now €1450. And the whole area is the same.

      1. Cian

        That would work out at be about 5% per year (compounded)

        But inflation is way below that. in fact the total % change in the CPI from Oct 2007 to Oct 2018 is 3.2%.
        A basket of goods and services that cost €850 in Oct 2007 would have cost €876.97 in Oct 2018.

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