Irish Property Market chat II - *read mod note post #1 before posting*

Ever hear the term "the straw that broke the camels back"

I think the straw was that back in February they were talking about removing RPZs and landlords who were stuck below market rents getting to finally get back to market rents. Many landlords had been holding out for such news. Finally they could make a profit again. Then the new rules coming were announced and they did neither. The rug was pulled hard from under them. I dont think anyone believes anymore that things are ever going to get any better, so that was the final straw. This one will hurt too much.

A friends of mine has 2 properties and always used to complain about other landlords complaining and that he was still making money. Im told by another colleague, that even he has issued notices now and is selling. I figured if he is selling then things are really bad. I havent spoken to him in about 6 months as he is abroad for a while, but i cant wait to get his thoughts on the situation now and why he changed his mind when I see him again. I suspect I already know the answer though.

Thats exactly the reason lots of landlords are leaving. Being forced to sell with the tenants in situ is the very thing that makes them cheap for the next person. Out of the current landlords pocket into the new ones pocket. Even FAs are advising their clients with rentals to give notice now so they can keep that money for themselves when they offload. Let the next buyer take the hit if they want to, but make sure you keep your own money in your own pocket.

You are correct, there will be no change to current tenancies. For the landlord that sells up there's a strong chance that rental property will get bought by another landlord so will remain in the system. Houses and apartments don't disappear when a landlord sells them

Her assesment of the US market may also be of interest as we have adopted many of there bad habits

Including spelling mistakes 😊

I used to think that there was no net gain or loss to the amount of rental units too, but then i started thinking about my brothers situation and assume its not a unique situation at all. 3 rental units in one house gone off the market needing 3 rental units to relace them. The house is becoming 1 housing unit for someone who doesnt live in Ireland at the moment.

He has 5 years left on the mortgage of a 4 bed house (He always kept one room empty for storage) so has a lot of equity now. His rent is 35% below market rate for which he is paying over 50% tax on any profit. He will have to pay CGT on the amount the house has increased by since he rented it first. Even after tax he walks away with hundreds of thousands and can leave the whole mess behind him. The new rules scared him into action. He kept thinking it couldnt get any worse but it just kept getting worse and the new rules were the final straw to trigger him into making a decision.

The last tenant, a student from India will be moving out in the next month or so and then he is selling the house. One couple moved out in November and the other are moving out today and tomorrow. He already has a buyer who is interested who is son of his friend and is moving back to Ireland from Dubai in the summer and wants to buy a house before he comes back.

The house did house 2 couples and a single man. He offered them all their last 2 months rent back if they moved before the deadline day and they have all taken the offer. The most recent tenant has been there for 2 years and the couples have both been there since before the pandemic. One of the couples have moved to a 2 bed apartment and the other couple have both moved to their own parents for now until they find somewhere else to rent. The last tenant is just waiting for the apartment he is moving into to become vacant in (Feb I believe) and then he will move. My brother told me last night that he is going with the buyer moving home from Dubai, and that the sale will be happening as soon as the house is empty even though he isnt moving home until the summer. He is paying cash and its with the solicitors now, so the sale should be going through as soon as its empty in Feb or however long the sale takes. His wife has been to view it already.

But after all that I worked out that its 1 person going to be occupying a house that originally had 5 people in it (6 at one point a few years ago when it was another couple instead of a single person in it). Assuming the couple living with their parents now want to move out to their own place again that will be new 3 rental units required to replace the 1 that has now gone off the market.

I think there was always very little chance of a landlord buying from him. Even Reits are bailing out at the moment. There are not many people apart from the tax payer (Councils and tax funded charities) interested in buying rental properties in Ireland at this point.

There's 3 brand new apartment blocks, all 2-3 bedrooms, after going up in Limerick City in the last few years, one is to an AHB (technically a landlord) the other 2 are after getting bought for rental. That's 50 apartments on the market this year that weren't there last year. Let's not forget the housing estate in maynooth that got bought by that fund 2 years ago. This idea that landlords are getting scared and running away clearly doesn't hold any water

Before government interventions landlords were raising rents by an average of 30% a year, that was completely unsustainable. Could you imagine if they did nothing

I seen some very interesting charts lately. From 2000 to 2008 during the last property boom, when the average house price was priced in Oz of Gold it showed a complete deviation from the mean something like 500oz of gold was required to buy a house. It then showed a comparison of the height of the crash in 2012 and the average price of a house in Ireland was the equivalent of 150 oz of gold, about 20% roughly below the long term average in Oz of gold.
Fast forward to today, and I know gold and hard assets have risen in price substantially but so has houses but in 2025 it was only 110 oz of gold for the average house in Ireland. So in gold terms or old money terms houses are cheaper now than in the height of the crash in 2012. One thing this signals is there is deffo not a bubble.

Worryingly it shows that there has been substantial debasement of all major currencies and in our case the euro. I think this is our main problem here. It our currency that’s the problem here.

https://www.irishtimes.com/property/residential/2026/01/13/a-former-dublin-rose-and-her-fiance-on-what-it-took-to-buy-their-first-home-in-their-20s/

Music teacher and salesman share their story to show that though it wasn’t easy, through subsidy schemes and by living with family while they saved, it was possible

At least they put it in the actual sub header this time instead of hiding it in the third paragraph.

What are the points of these pieces?

I bought my first house in 1994 having worked abroad for three years to save the deposit.

Lino downstairs and sanded and polished wooden floors upstairs for the first five years. Chairs moved between kitchen/dining room and living room as required.

AHBs and councils buying or renting privately built homes is government intervention.

I live and work in Limerick, it's a nightmare for workers with insecure housing. Of those new apartments, my colleagues either won't qualify to be housed in them or they'll consume circa 80% of there salary in rent. If they got a pay cut there quality of life would improve substantially

We have multiple incidents of colleagues having to pull children out of schools and move (some permanently to other countries). I have a colleague who stays in a B&B off season and takes his chances on student accommodation during the summer as its far cheaper than a house share/rental. The housing situation in Limerick has never been worse

Market rent appreciation has accelerated since the introduction of rent controls

Yes I am aware of the situation regarding rentals, which is actually very similar in the rest of the country. To be fair the council have been #1 in the country for taking over derelict houses and bringing them back into use. The solution is, and will continue to be, more housing needed

To use your examples

The Children's Hospital - BAM

The Dunkettle roundabout - Sisk

The Adare bypass - Sisk and Sorensen joint venture

Limerick Foynes railway - Sisk

Housing body too 5-6 years to complete - Various developers, none of which are state owned

And, of course, who could forget the O'Connell Street revitalisation scheme with half the job done in twice the timeframe - Shareridge

Perhaps instead of farming the building work out to these seemingly useless private developers we could set up a state owned developer and also save the profit margin these companies charge to the state

To be fair the council have been #1 in the country for taking over derelict houses and bringing them back into use

That should tell all you need to know about what's wrong with dereliction rampant in the city centre