Sir, – In today’s world, as someone who unwisely both a property to rent out in 2006, I clearly qualify as a “rackrent landlord”. It doesn’t matter whether or not I’ve been a good and decent landlord. Come “the revolution”, I will probably be guillotined in College Green along with all other landlords, bankers, etc, that are today’s hate figures in our society.
However, before this happens, let me point out that with the proposed 4 per cent cap (this after a two-year rent freeze), the rent on my apartment in central Dublin will still be €50 per month less than what I was charging in 2006. Yes, 10 years ago. While everyone has been hysterically reacting to the recent high yearly rent increases, the very same people were silent when rents plummeted during the so-called crash. Landlords do not matter, and the fact that they help with housing supply is not important.
On a monthly basis, I have to pay several hundred euro to my bank to top-up the rent I receive, to cover the interest on my loan. I then have to repay capital on the loan. Believe me, I am not alone. There are thousands like me, and the announcement of rent caps is a dagger in our collective hearts.
The recent rent freeze and proposed rent caps won’t stop homelessness. However, they should help stop landlords hiking up rents beyond tenants’ capacity to pay, and that is a good thing.
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But, one should remember, if most rental accommodation is already full, the net effect of these new rules will not be a reduction in homelessness. After all, that ultimately is a supply problem, but that is too much reality for our politicians to take on board.
Homelessness is be a complex issue, while correcting property supply involves long-term planning and action, something that is a challenge for most of the powers that be in this country. The easy “solution” involves short-term, knee-jerk decisions that lack thought. The “left”, as we know it, calls for lots of social housing to be built by the State. I can assure you that this will be necessary as no one in their right mind would become a landlord given the current cost of housing and restrictions on rents.
I’ve never thrown out a tenant and have always had very good relations with them. However, I must accept that I am a “rackrent landlord” because that is the label given to me by many politicians and indeed media commentators. Maybe I should look forward to the revolution and the guillotine, as with it I will have to stop worrying about the serious debt that I have landed on my family. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN CULLEN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.