Having trouble finding tenants in Portlaoise

pollynat

Hi,

Could anyone give me advice on how to source tenants in Portlaoise. I have previously registered with DAFT and with a local agent, but to no avail... any other suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks

lorweld

Have you tried placing an add in the Leinster Express?

rocky

drop the price maybe

pollynat

Thanks for your response, will try the Leinster express.

Cant drop the price any further. Losing on it already...

Cheers

Tom123

pollynat wrote: »

Thanks for your response, will try the Leinster express.

Cant drop the price any further. Losing on it already...

Cheers

But if the rent is higher than what the market is willing to pay you won't be able to rent makes no difference if you are losing money
IMO this is the single biggest reason people are unable to rent a property.

SkepticOne

pollynat wrote: »

Thanks for your response, will try the Leinster express.

Cant drop the price any further. Losing on it already...

Cheers

Losing more with no tenants surely.

punchestown

Try the local clink. They operate a rent a bed scheme on a nightly basis. If their intake on a given evening is greater than a certain number, they contact a number of local Community Rental Alieviating Prisons in order to ensure all prisoners are housed for a given night. The next morning the prisoners are returned to the prison to replace any prisoners who have finished serving time. Worth a call?

The_Conductor

Contact the Department of Agriculture- they are massively expanding the number of officers based in Portlaoise and may be in a position to put interested staff members in touch with you.

Note: rents have fallen considerably, if you're looking for more than the market will bear, you simply won't get it. A lot of people are loosing considerable amounts of money on property that has been bought in the recent past- it may be totally unreasonable to expect to cover all your costs- just something to keep in mind.

sadie9

Did you try the agent Movin Up, they seem very proactive and purposely don't take on too many houses (or so they say). Also there is propertyproperly, Caroline Bergin and Richard Gallagher. I'd give Movin Up a try. They recently did a mail shot asking for houses to let. Although Caroline Bergin has far too many houses from what I see from the ads in the paper. I was helping a friend rent out a house in Portlaoise recently and was also going to rent myself at one stage so that's how I was dealing with them.

sadie9

One other thing, in Daft if you refresh your ad each day by making a small edit to it, so it looks like it was just entered that day. If someone sees an ad for a place that was put up on Daft 6 weeks ago they will presume it is gone.

lisaree

can i ask how much you are asking for?renting in kilminchy at da mo and am paying 600 for a two bed house der.

pollynat

lisaree wrote: »

can i ask how much you are asking for?renting in kilminchy at da mo and am paying 600 for a two bed house der.

I'm charging 800pcm, for a 3 double bed, semi detached. This is the current market rate.

Cheers

astrofool

If it was the market rate, you'd have it rented by now.

The_Conductor

pollynat wrote: »

I'm charging 800pcm, for a 3 double bed, semi detached. This is the current market rate.

Cheers

From a noticeboard 2 feet from my desk where I'm sitting:

3 Bedroom house to rent in Portlaoise available immediately. Central location, fully furnished, off road parking. Large back garden. 5 minute walk to train station and town centre. Rent €740 ono per month. Phone 086 8432166

From looking in the Leinster Leader- there are 3*3 beds- all listed as centrally located, 625, 680 and 700.

The rental market has gotten a lot softer- if you check the papers you'll find people are willing to accept a lot less than they were a few months ago.

I would suggest that you look into it a lot more, and if you want a decent longterm professional tenant, depending on the property itself, be prepared to accept a hit.

A lot of the properties being let are not with the agencies- they are being let by people who have approached the Prison Service, Eircom, The Department of Agriculture- and some of the other employers in the area, and gotten personnel departments to circulate staff with details of the available property. Just a suggestion.

WhatsGoingOn

pollynat wrote: »

I'm charging 800pcm, for a 3 double bed, semi detached. This is the current market rate.

Cheers

Drop the price to €750.
That is only €50 difference a month to you.
If you don't get anyone in the next month at the 800 rate, you are losing €800.
If you drop the price by €50, it would take you 16 months to 'lose' that €800.

(Not really explained well, but you should get the idea)

The_Conductor

Ps- its not unusual to make a loss on rental properties. This applies equally with residential and commercial units The big problem at the moment is a lot of developers have flooded the market with rental units rather than risking depressing the market even further by trying to sell them. While these might not be in the Portlaoise area itself- they are often sold to staff as within commuting distance (much the same as Portlaoise is considered a commuter town for Dublin).

Its unfortunate, and it will rectify itself, it may however take sometime before it feeds through the system (it could be a couple of years, depending on what happens to the housing market).

Developers and the CIF have petitioned the Department to ensure that these new-build lets, do not loose their status as new property- ensuring they still get preferential treatment from a stampduty perspective for non-first-time-buyers, who they see as trying to tradeup to some of these units (providing they manage to sell their shoebox apartments at some future point in time......)

DonJose

Rental prices across the country are dropping in price, the last IPW rental report showed 574 rental price reductions at an average reduction of €100. Basically we have too many properties for sale and for rent in Ireland. The live register showed the biggest rise on record, the seasonally adjusted Live Register figure rose by 12,000 from February to reach 199,900. Expect it to get a lot worse as many foreign nationals don't sign on once they are let go, they pack up and head overseas leaving more empty rental properties.

http://irishpropertywatch.110mb.com/RENTAL/04_APR_2008/RENTAL_DROPS_04_APRIL_2008.htm

Patrickof

smccarrick wrote: »

Developers and the CIF have petitioned the Department to ensure that these new-build lets, do not loose their status as new property- ensuring they still get preferential treatment from a stampduty perspective for non-first-time-buyers, who they see as trying to tradeup to some of these units (providing they manage to sell their shoebox apartments at some future point in time......)

Any idea what sort of response they have gotten?

I'd imagine its a bit of a tax nightmare - usually the developers company would own the house, not the developer. Who gets the rent? When is stamp duty to be paid? The market value of the house is > the build cost so does the developer / developers company have a tax issue if they take possession of it to rent out?

Tom123

pollynat wrote: »

I'm charging 800pcm, for a 3 double bed, semi detached. This is the current market rate.

Cheers

Of the 66 3 beds on Daft

12 are above €800pm
23 are exactly €800pm
31 are below €800pm

You are in the range but you seem to be a little too high. Even if you advertised at €750pm you would be much more likely to rent it.

It makes more sense to lose €50pm = €600pa than miss even 1 month where the property is vacant, loss = €750pm

lisaloo

Do up a few posters and put them around locally. sometimes ppl are frightened by agents and the like. good luck, i hope you rent it soon. must be a worry for you.

JimmyOats

Why not look into the Rental Accomodation Scheme with Laois County Council? Worth a try. Here in Fingal they are taking houses and guaranteeing rent for 5 years ( at slightly below the market value admittedly)

johnnyskeleton

It's possible that there are more properties available to rent in Portlaoise than there are people who want to rent.

In which case, you are either in competition with the other landlords, or you are trying to make someone who is already renting move into your property instead.

While you might say that the market rent is €800 based on what other houses in the area are renting for, the real market rent is what someone is prepared to rent for and what you are prepared to let for. If no one is renting at €800 then it's too high, as simple as that. By contrast, if you were to drop the price to €400 you would probably get hundreds of offers. The trick is to price it at the highest possible price that someone will pay you for it.

As regards what you said about losing on it already, if you are concerned that the costs of owning the property (i.e. mortgage, repairs, bin taxes etc) are higher than the rental income, then you should consider selling (although this equally has problems). If you are relying on the rent paying the mortgage, and the rent is not enough to pay the mortgage, you should consider taking the hit and losing something on a sale rather than losing lots over the next few years until you are forced to sell at an even greater loss by the bank.