Primetime Special: Nightmare to let

I’m a private landlord since 2007, more-so by accident than anything else. I was really shocked last night to see the state of the some of the properties passing for rental accommodation these days. I consider myself a decent landlord, I charge the tenant a fair price and any time there's an issue I make sure it's sorted with a degree of urgency. They're good tenants and I'd like to keep them in place.

The practices uncovered by PT I feel are a product of some really poor decisions around legislation since the crash in 2008.

Tightening up on the legislation around bedsits effectively pushed tenants out of properties at the very bottom of the market. I viewed a house with a colleague in central Dublin for sale in 2014 - there were 12 bedsits and he was looking to buy it to convert into a large family home. From speaking with a couple of the tenants, they were either moving back to their parents (students) or in the case of 2 foreign nationals, were considering hostels. Just one example, but one house housing 12 people all needed to make alternative arrangements regarding their accomodation. Where did the legislators expect these people to go?

Secondly, I think the treatment of some genuine private landlords by the Revenue has driven them out of the market. I for one am considering my exit; I’d love to hang onto it but it’s a financial noose around my neck. Since 2015 the rent has just about covered the mortgage, but it’s loss making after management fees. I’d still probably suck up that expense given I’d own the asset over time, if I wasn’t asked to pay 50% tax on the rent I receive. There are no profits only losses, but I still have to cover these payments every year out of my own already taxed PAYE income.

The homeless/housing/rental crisis hasn’t appeared out of thin air, decent private landlords have been driven out of the market leaving large funds/ETF's and unscrupulous characters to operate in the market. If I wanted to invest money in 2017, the last place I’d look would be on a rental property in Ireland. Until significant inroads are made in making the Irish rental business a semi-worthwhile investment, practices such as those on in Crumlin will continue, long after the outrage from the PT piece has died away.

Timothy Bryce wrote: »

I for one am considering my exit; I’d love to hang onto it but it’s a financial noose around my neck. Since 2015 the rent has just about covered the mortgage, but it’s loss making after management fees. I’d still probably suck up that expense given I’d own the asset over time, if I wasn’t asked to pay 50% tax on the rent I receive. There are no profits only losses, but I still have to cover these payments every year out of my own already taxed PAYE income.

^^^ This ^^^

People with money, cannot be expected to invest their money into a property to rent out to people with less money at a loss to themselves.

Piece in bold is crazy. It's all down to the f**king banks (AGAIN!). Mortgage rates in Ireland are the highest in Europe.
Bank's are continuously shafting mortgage holders.

The Banks and Politicians need to get their head out of the clouds and sort this.

I for one would not invest in a property to rent out, unless I had at least 50% of the value of that property as a deposit.
And guess what!!!!??? The Banks won't give you a mortgage for less than 50% of the value of that property because "They don't make enough money on it / Can't repo it if things go to sh*t"

P*sstake.

Did anyone recognise what part of Kilkenny Mr O'Neill the landlord lives in?
I would imagine he's none too pleased this morning that his neighbours know about his slum business.