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

Hi All

I tried to find a mod and did message @Graham but doesn't seem to be getting through.

Hope this post doesn't contravene the rules and if it does, someone might message me please.

I ended up (kinda unexpectedly) selling my old house and buying a new house last year. I was extremely frustrated with the conveyancing process which took 8 months for the house we were buying.

As was in the middle of doing a masters, I decided to do my research thesis on "Transparency in Irish Conveyancing" to understand people's experiences and also to understand if a new eConveyancing system might be helpful, cause additional concerns, etc...

The masters is from TUS (Technological University of the Shannon). It is the Master of Arts in Financial Management.

I am hoping that you might allow me to post the message below which will hopefully get some feedback to the survey which I'm hoping can help better understand people's problems and make improvements for future buyers. Additionally, and for full transparency, I am happy to share the full survey results with the group once the survey is complete.

Thanks in advance.
Ivan C

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I’m reaching out for a small favour please. No request for money or to buy anything, just 3-5 minutes of your life to complete a short, anonymous survey for my Master’s research in Financial Management and specifically looking at Transparency in Irish Conveyancing.

To be eligible, you just need to be over 18 and have bought or sold a house in Ireland in the last 3 years.

The research looks at the conveyancing process — specifically:

• how clear (or unclear) progress and timelines are
• how communication feels as a buyer or seller
• whether digital / eConveyancing solutions could make the whole experience less stressful and more transparent

Details:

• Takes 3–5 minutes
• Fully anonymous & confidential
• Academic research only
• Captured using MS Forms
• Link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ahmLBlctf0CnDTwFccMmagyLEXYE9GFOvlxP73k__kJUQkVWNkxQUjMxSTVJMjJSSFdSRkxYS0xLTi4u

Not eligible?
No problem at all but I’d be hugely grateful if you could:

• comment for visibility, or
• share this post with your network

And if you are someone within a group outside of boards that has gone through the experience, I'd be really appreciative if you could share with those please please. Consider this your philanthropic good deed for the week. 🙂

Thanks in advance

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In small areas only. Those cities dont have blanket caps across the entire city region like we do.

Or are you proposing rent caps in certain areas of Dublin only?

There are way more capitals that dont have any caps at all than those that do.

At least someone umderstands.

Neither 'Market' rent or 'average' rent are publicly available figures. I believe there were provisions in the Rental Bill to ensure that rents would be included as part of the registration of tenancies. Having seen how much bullshit went on before we were finally able to see house prices in the PPR I wouldn't hold my breath.

The only publicly available figures are 'Asking prices' on sites like Daft and MyHome. I did know someone who was collecting those on a regular (monthly? weekly?) basis for 1 and 2 bed houses - not sure if they still do.

The fact remains. No rent cap removal means no big uptick in new homes getting built.

Landlords need to make a profit. If they cannot do that they will withdraw their asset from the market.

The cost of doing business goes up every year and so rent rises are necessary.

I viewed a property for sale recently. Met all my criteria beforehand and viewing confirmed my opinion. Emailed estate agents offering asking price.

Nothing back from agents, no confirmation, no thanks for bid, no thumbs up even. Followed up and got confirmation that email was received but that was it.

Anyone know if this is normal behaviour or how to proceed here? Property not long on market, in good condition and fair value I believe.

I was off looking for something else and discovered this Guardian article from 2024. It's an interesting take on the rental market and how the rise of the individual landlord has affected the rental market. I'm sure the fact that it comes from the Guardian will just trigger some people around here. But the arguments are well made and backed by data and I'd be curious to see specific rebuttals of the arguments.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/mar/19/end-of-landlords-surprisingly-simple-solution-to-uk-housing-crisis

So we've gone from "Capital cities across the world" to "Most other cities" in the context of having no cap, that's progress.

I think to understand why the cap is here in Ireland you have to bear in mind that some tenants were facing 30%+ rental hikes, during inflation levels of 0. Landlords and their collective greed created this situation for themselves so you really shouldn't feel too sorry for them

Article below is out of date by just under a year but if 20% of our new builds are going to landlords there's clearly not much of an issue with investment as you claim

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2025/07/01/investors-and-state-tied-to-more-than-a-fifth-of-home-sales-last-year/

I completely agree, market level is taken as the highest possible within a bracket.

Also there are zero checks on rent increases when changing tenants. I have said it before, but we moved out from a place where we were paying €1650 and the landlord had it back up for €2350 worth zero upgrades whatsoever the instant we left.

Investors are still investing though at a rate of 20% as demonstrated above. A balance needs to be struck as well as too many homes are going to investors and not enough to people who want to buy their own home. 4 years ago an entire housing estate in Maynooth almost got bought up by a cuckoo fund. 4 years ago we had these same rent caps so your argument that those rent caps cause less investment doesn't hold water

I've heard these stories before. Completely illegal but with no way to actually prove what the former tenant was paying the current tenants need to rely on the RTB - who more often than not side with the landlord so everybody knows that it's a fools errand trying to fight it

And you seem to completely miss the point that by removing rent caps rents will become completely unaffordable for most and then you will have an even bigger problem. Since supply was very low beforeion before rent controls were introduced you could also argue that there's very little to suggest removing the rent caps will help boost supply.

So we would be making rents unaffordable and putting people onto the homeless line in order to line the pockets of the few landlords who are left. Can you not see how such a situation is such a bad one?

The issue is that we disagree with what happens when rent caps get removed, I believe we fully understand each other. More importantly it's looking like the govt are going to push ahead with getting rid of rent caps so I do genuinely hope that what you say will come true, but I have severe doubts

The rent cap discussion is nonsense.

When the idea of a state building company is floated, its immediately claimed (with no evidence) that no extra houses would be built because state would be competing with developers for labour.

But yet we are supposed to believe that if rent caps are abolished, huge private investment will flood in and deliver more houses?

With what extra labour??