Landlords selling 2026

“….provide social housing, although some essentially do via the RAS scheme.”

No you have that wrong imo. The landlord of a RAS/Hap tenant is not providing a social house - they are a private landlord letting their property to private tenants. If those tenants happen to be receiving rent supports from the state that’s between the individual and the state. If the state makes a payment directly to the owner on behalf of the tenant, it doesn’t change the private landlord / tenant status. Those tenants will always be the same as every other private tenant in the country - it is not a social house.

As for councils and AHBs buying on the open market for social housing provision, that’s their prerogative but the result is that working families who do not qualify for social housing are in direct competition with organisations who have endless means at their disposal so have an unlimited advantage in acquiring housing properties.

The actions of the state and its agencies in the private purchase and rental markets in recent decades has severely impacted anyone outside the social net, less rentals, less to buy. The people who pay their own way are paying for the very systems that sabotage their own efforts and it’s completely distorted both markets. Although those policies are approved by government and endlessly promoted by those who think the taxpayer should provide, didn’t someone once say that the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money?

Its not great news for renters if an enormo property company comes in and buys up a load of properties and sets rents at the max and beyond.

Example. I sold my apartment last year (textbook Celtic Tiger accidental landlord) and one of the reasons was 75% of the apartments were bought by a big company who could then do what they wanted as they controlled the AGM. So they decided they wanted new lifts, stairs etc. At a cost of 4k per apartment. To justify higher rents.

I was charging €1000 a month for a 2 bed. Never increased it. Barely covered the mortgage but they were good tenants. Now for the same apartment in the same complex rents are €2,450 for a 2 bed.

I knew a few of us accidental plebs who were all charging fair rents. €1600 was the most I heard of up to a couple of years ago. Not anymore.

It is not the landlords themselves but rather the old rules now being phased out that place the burden. The new rules mean, particularly for tenants of the larger landlords (>3 properties) that the tenancy will last for at least six years with controlled increases in rent, only resetting to market at the end of each six-year period.

Clear direction is needed but i dont think a landlord can just cherry pick the highest rent as they are asked to reference 3 rent prices when staking their claim for market rent.

Ive said it before but an obvious consequence of the new system is large landlords leaving properties empty until the prices go higher.

If 5 landlords are looking to rent in an area, the landlord that rents last will get the highest price.

Exactly that - it’s the rules that are causing the dysfunctional market.

At the very best that will work in larger town and cities. What if you need to rent in the country or a small village? No big LL there sorry to bad. What if your parent has dementia and needs a nursing home. Unless you have power of attorney you can't sell the house. If you rent it, you are locked in for 6 years. What happens if they die after a year, but there is not tax bill so settle, you can't sell it for 5 more years even though you never wanted to be a LL only needed to do it to pay for part of a nursing home bill. People won't rent out those types of houses now, so a house that could be rented to a family is locked up, kept empty.

New EU legislation coming in 2026 for short term lets. That will probably restrict STLs even more, or increase tax, or there’ll be some other rule to ‘encourage’ owners back to the rental market 😂

Would that inpact rural or small towns who are legally able to rent on AirBNB?

I thought the changes were more related to registration and transparency.

If an AirBnB has planning approval and is in a town of less than 20 thousand people, i think it could still stay on AirBnB?

Dont like the use of the term short term lets this way. In the old days we called these "holiday homes'. You could get a catalogue/brochure from Bord Failte with details/pics of all the holiday homes in a particular tourism area.

In the old days a short term let was e.g. a student renting for a single academic year!

Agree, the state should add to social housing because the population is growing. It was a bad decision to rely on the Part5 component of developments and the private rental market to meet demand. But, Im not sure how selling public housing to tenants makes the problem worse though. It’s just another scheme to help people buy, plenty of others get state support, help to buy, shared equity, grants for renovation etc. If those homes weren’t bought by the tenants, they’d continue living there so the house wouldn’t be available for new tenants anyway.

So the predicted sh*tstorm has well and truly kicked off, and the minister has unwittingly confirmed the government views and stance on this:

In a statement to The Journal Minister for Housing James Browne said: “Let me be very clear. There are rules here and landlords are expected to follow them, and if they do not, they should face the full rigour of the Residential Tenancies Board’s dispute mechanisms.”

“A landlord has responsibilities, and tenants have rights. I have increased funding to the RTB to ramp up their oversight, their systems and their capacity.”

There you have it: a landlord has responsibilities (no mention of rights), and tenants have rights (no mention of responsibilities). Surely both have both?

This is their attitude in a nutshell, and why they are doomed to failure on this.

Havent we been told by Simon and James that people have been spreading misinformation that the evictions in wexford were due to the new rules? Well now - Who has been the ones spreading the misinformation.

https://www.thejournal.ie/evictions-wexford-video-6975682-Mar2026/?utm_source=thejournal&utm_content=top-stories

Apparently he's been in trouble with the RTB multiple times.