Landlords selling 2026

Lads berating smaller (1 or 2 property) rental property owners on here, without any knowledge/experience of letting, haven't got a clue. They want their cake and eat it. A large number of independent analysts of the property market have stated that the latest measures will again exacerbate the problems. They are right, IMO, and we'll see the proof in the results over the next 12 to 18 months.

As one article stated: "this is the seventh piece of rent sector legislation in the last decade, averaging one every 17 months. And we still don’t have a strategy"

No wonder nobody wants to stay in the game if their control over their asset is being negatively impacted and eroded every year or 2. It's a no-brainer to get out and seek alternatives.

That might work if the landlord owned it outright. What about if there is a mortgage,management fees, omc fees etc.

Let’s say you have rent of 1500pm,mortgage 1000pm , management 150,omc 200pm
market rent is 2.5k

you can see the margins are razor thin and having all the risk for maybe 1k per year isn’t enough. It’s simpler to let landlords be taxed like everyone else at 52pc but allow them function properly.

would this work to stop landlords from leaving?

yes bad tenants offer risk, but sorting this out won’t resolve the viability discussion.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/government-called-on-by-property-body-to-pause-rent-reforms-to-prevent-landlord-exodus/a168568356.html

Sorry for the paywall — I don’t have access myself — but is it worth considering?

link if people want to give it a read;

https://archive.ph/eMSU7

Not only estate agents, even people who are not landlords could be affected by the new rules. If an individual or a family inherits a rental property from a parent, grandparent, sibling, relative, friend, they will likely have tax to pay but will not be able to get vacant possession to sell until the end of a six year TMD. If they have to sell during the TMD to pay the tax, it has to be with the tenant. The value of a house with a tenant could be less, the pool of buyers will be less (cash only unless banks start to give mortgages without vacant possession), there may be no landlord buyers in some parts of the country and it’s unlikely an owner occupier would buy a house with a sitting tenant.

It could also take a long time to sell a rental that’s 30/40/50% below market rent even to a cash buyer landlord. In the meantime, the beneficiaries need to pay inheritance tax, someone has to take on the role of landlord, deal with tenants, rtb, revenue. If CAT is not paid when due, interest and penalties are added. What could a family do if they can’t sell the property quickly, maybe get a loan? Just headaches that nobody needs after losing a loved one.

So many families could be affected as the RTB data shows 103k+ small landlords around the country - that’s a lot of family members. Wills can cause problems anyway, wills with a rental is just extra complications and landlords are giving notice now to either sell or because their own family will use the property.

The impact of the new rules is supposed to increase supply but I can’t see how they will benefit tenants if thousands of small landlords are leaving.

We just need one rule. If the tenant stops paying rent you can evict them. And then have a functioning mechanism to support landlords do this. If that was in place it would stop the outflow.

I've gone through the eviction process. Had to give 9 months notice. At the end of the 9 months they just stayed another 3+ months.

They had a new house from the council. but kept their stuff in my house for 3 months. The law says if they have a key and their belongings are there it's still their home so I can't enter it.

I had multiple instances where they said I'm moving in the morning, I'm going on holidays and will leave the key in the letter box. I drive all the way to the house and they are still there. Nothing I can do but just drive the hour back home. I'd multiple instances like that.

After they finally moved out and left broken windows, holes in walls, mountains of rubbish (pallets, tyres, sheds, trampoline etc.) I still had to wait two weeks before I could dump any of it to give them "reasonable time to collect their stuff"..

7 months after they moved out I'm still getting angry voice mails because I won't do a 2 hour round trip to collect their mail and deliver it as apparently it's "easier for me to do that than for them to ring and get addresses updated".

I can't get this house sold fast enough. If I ever go back into that market it will be short term air BnB style or rent a room where the rules aren't as toxic.

And to think, I feel like I got lucky !!! They left after 12 months and there was only a few thousands in damage.

Imagine that and you know why landlords are in mass exodus.

That's the crux of the matter. I'm a "lucky one".

It should be simple. 30 days with no rent. Give notice. Call RTB to engage the tenant. No remedy in 30 days they send a team to change the locks. Put the tenant on a register of defaulters so other landlords know to avoid them.

There's a solicitor on YouTube that's worth a watch. He's in a similar situation trying to evict non paying tenant.

Went to the RBT got a determination. But because the RTB made a typo in the determination ( something like they referenced article 31 when it should have been article 30) the court wouldn't hear it. Case for pushed back months. He went back to the RTB to ask them to fix the typo, and they said there is no legislation for them to redo it so they can't help.

Months of notice, months with a useless RTB, months with a court system.

Eventually he got lucky and they moved out leaving behind a flat soaked in cat pee.

He is a solicitor and still found it an insanely complicated system. God help the normal Joe soap.

The whole situation is really easily fixed, but there is a fear to even say out loud what everyone can see happening. Ireland is now used as an example in universities all over the world when teaching about rent controls and unintended consequences. The example used to be New York.

Until that happens it will always be a high risk investment.

It could get very messy for some families. A big question is why the government do not inform people that this could happen if they inherit a rental property.
How is a compulsory TIS sale for every lease not restricting a citizens right to “transfer, bequeath and inherit property”. I think it’s quite problematic that a person inheriting a property would have less rights over it than a tenant and also find themselves with responsibilities and obligations they did not contract for.

Is poorly thought out.

They are arguing Landlord aren't leaving and its doesn't matter if they do. While moving heaven and earth to stop them leaving.

You only need to stop them leaving because there aren't enough rentals. Go build the rentals, then you wouldn't have do all these stupid tricks.