Try reading my post again and then coment, and also consider the arguments in the context of this thread, which is about property investment. That's "investment", not "buying", "replacing the role of local government" or "altruism." It is very easy to make a personal attack on me and try to use that to put your own flat-earth views forward in the context of a discussion on investment, but you need to get into the real world.
I have nothing against social welfare tenants. I recognise that in a just society a certain percentage of people will always need to be looked after by the rest of us, either by reason of age, disability, unemployment or just general inability to cope with the world. I have absolutely no problem with my tax euros being used to take care of those who need it. That is one of the reasons why we have local authorities and the HSE, and if they are not doing their job its not my fault.
However, it is a simple fact, not an opinion, that the SW rental sector contains a higher percentage of people who are disfunctional and unable to cope than the population in general. That is why they need to be helped with housing, funds and social support networks. Conversely, if the sector was smilar in cross-section to the rest of the population, there would be no need for social welfare supports. That is also the reason why an INVESTOR should be aware that the sector is a high risk one for anyone who is looking for returns in an industry where margins are currently very low due to the inflated price of property. I don't get involved in the private rental sector in Ireland at all for all these reasons, but if I did I would certainly steer clear of the SW sector, particularly given the one-sided contracts offered by the local authorities.
As for your comment that "You have a good situation now where demand for rental propertys exceeds supply" -- where have you been lately? The towns of ireland are full of vacant properties bought by "investors" who fell for this kind of unresearched thinking. These buyers are now tempted to get involved in renting to local authority tenants, on punitive terms that would not be accepted in the private sector, and although many of them will have a good experience (read that last bit again before you attack my reasoning), a good number will live to regret their decision to prop up the shortcomings of the local authorities.
The bottom line, as I said before, is that the local authorities will not be in the least intersted when a problem family wrecks their home and then comes demanding that they do immediate repairs. The local authority will simply re-house the tenants with another gullible landlord, and the original investor will be left to sort out the mess with absolutely no redress against anyone. Worse still, the landlord will find himself or herself ranged against the whole network of social workers, officials, even elected representatives. The investor will have to fund any resulting legal battles, while the tenant and the local authority have unlimited access to legal advice and representation, with a consequent ability to go as far as they like in the court system.
If you are so convinced of the merits of renting to local authority tenants, go to your bank, borrow a few euro, and get into the business. That's the acid test of course; it's all right to preach at others, but would you risk your hard earned money (or more likely -borrowings) in a sector that is full of grief.
Whatever I might want to believe about the way society is structured, and how things might operate in an ideal world, I post here only for the benefit of would-be investors. I don't aspire to raise this discussion to the more lofty and moralistic level that you seem to want it to operate at. I just tell it like it is, not as it should be in this ideal world of yours.
Oh by the way, I have been there, gave the benefit of the doubt a few years ago in another jurisdiction to a family that relied on the state for the roof over their heads. It took a year and a lot of legal costs before I could get them out for non payment of the rent and for damage to the property and general upset to the neighbours. Even so, I would have no problem getting into the business again if the figures added up and if the local authorities indemnified landlords against loss and damages -- they don't. Once bitten!
