Budget 2019 - Measures to help the housing crises - what would you do?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Extend the rent a room scheme to landlords. It will reduce rent for tenant, landlords after tax income remains the same and the tenant can save for a deposit to purchase a property themselves.
 
The Horseman said:
Extend the rent a room scheme to landlords. It will reduce rent for tenant, landlords after tax income remains the same and the tenant can save for a deposit to purchase a property themselves.
Click to expand...

The rent a room means you can earn 14 grand tax free. How does yr proposal make sense?
 
The Horseman said:
Extend the rent a room scheme to landlords. It will reduce rent for tenant, landlords after tax income remains the same and the tenant can save for a deposit to purchase a property themselves.
Click to expand...

Tenants can already avail of the rent a room scheme; do you mean that a landlord getting €20,000 of rent and €14,000 after tax might drop the rent to €14,000 if the rent was tax free?

If your suggestion is to allow tenants to sublet and avail of the rent a room scheme, a tenant can already do this.
 
Last edited:
Remove development levies and charges.
Start taxing land properly - including increasing local property tax and no exemptions i.e. turn it into a site/land tax to cover both houses, vacant sites and agricultural land.
Invest in Social Housing.
 
Not a budget proposal but I can't understand why the dispute resolution process in Ireland is so onerous on both parties.
Give the prtb some teeth for regulating both parties. If somebody doesn't pay rent for two months get them out. If a landlord doesn't meet reasonable standards have a process for inspecting resolving and fining that takes a couple of months max.

I was looking into buying to rent a few years ago. The risk to reward wasn't good enough so I didn't bother and its only gotten worse now.
 
The only way to solve the social housing problem I think would be to build lots more social housing.
But - apply new rules to having a social housing house-
1. Rent taken at whatever the income source is
2. Tenant unless incapacitated - responsible for basic up keep of house lawn cutting, gutters, etc.
3. Tenant responsible also for proper disposal of all rubbish.
4. No selling of houses to tenants, must always remain a social house. If tenant wants to live elsewhere then up to them to move.
5. Any anti-social behaviour then eviction on two warnings.
6. No passing on of house down through families.
7. Regular reviews on house by council - say every 5 years to check on income / occupants
8. Tenant must sign and agree to all above
 
- Large-scale building of two/three bed housing and apartments in densely populated areas. The properties to be made available to all citizens who wish to avail of them.This program would be similar to the programs in Singapore, which house some 85% of population.
- Properties to be managed by property management companies offering most competitive rental prices by tender.
- Extra powers for swift eviction where anti-social/criminal behaviour or where tenant is shown clearly able to pay rent but refusing to do so.
- Property management company held to account for poor upkeep of common areas, lift services, reception services etc.
- State to guarantee costs for structural repairs as they arise.

Should tenants wish to live elsewhere, they would be free to buy or rent in the private housing market as they please.
 
The papers are all predicting that the Minister will accelerate the removal of the restrictions on the deductibility of mortgage interest payments when calculating taxable rental profits.

Will that be enough to keep some landlords in the game?
 
Ban local authorities from purchasing second hand homes - they should only be able to purchase new builds. This will incentivise new building supply and stop them from gazumping people and driving up price of houses currently on the market.
 
Might sound mad, but how about building serviced mobile home parks on the outskirts of Dublin for emergency accommodation.

Many hard working families around the country spend most of their summers in mobile homes already, so they must be fit for purpose. These can be had for 30-50k in a decent mobile home park. For about 3-4k a year all services are provided for (cooking facilities, showers, washing facilities, electricity connections etc.)

Families would have the security of being able to lock their own door at night and the kids would have their own room in many cases. As mobile homes already house families for months at the time, I think, these should at least be considered.

Crucially, this would invlove little or no building costs (where the taxpayer never gets a good deal). There are loads of mobile homes for sale in Ireland and the UK and could be picked up quickly and cheaply

I'm not advocating that mobile homes would replace properly built social housing, but rather be used for emergency accommodation - better than a hotel I would imagine. Buses could be put on to bring the children to school.
 
Sarenco said:
The papers are all predicting that the Minister will accelerate the removal of the restrictions on the deductibility of mortgage interest payments when calculating taxable rental profits.

Will that be enough to keep some landlords in the game?
Click to expand...
I'm the first to admit I know nothing about housing policy, anyway....
I think a re-balance is needed between short and long term lets. AirBNB has to be less attractive (regulated and taxed more) and long term lets need to be more attractive (less tax).

A landlord shift from short term lets to long term lets has to be the quickest way (at least it's faster than building new houses) to address the housing crisis.
 
Firefly said:
Might sound mad, but how about building serviced mobile home parks on the outskirts of Dublin for emergency accommodation.

Many hard working families around the country spend most of their summers in mobile homes already, so they must be fit for purpose. These can be had for 30-50k in a decent mobile home park. For about 3-4k a year all services are provided for (cooking facilities, showers, washing facilities, electricity connections etc.)

Families would have the security of being able to lock their own door at night and the kids would have their own room in many cases. As mobile homes already house families for months at the time, I think, these should at least be considered.

Crucially, this would invlove little or no building costs (where the taxpayer never gets a good deal). There are loads of mobile homes for sale in Ireland and the UK and could be picked up quickly and cheaply

I'm not advocating that mobile homes would replace properly built social housing, but rather be used for emergency accommodation - better than a hotel I would imagine. Buses could be put on to bring the children to school.
Click to expand...
Apart from everything else wrong with this, the compo culture implications would be horrendous. After a few years, they'd be like the Magdalen Laundries...
 
Firefly said:
Might sound mad, but how about building serviced mobile home parks on the outskirts of Dublin for emergency accommodation.
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with the sentiment. The problem here is that after it alleviates the homeless crisis there is little impetus on government to set up permanent homes.
A similar path was taken in US with trailer parks. Trailers simply became the accepted norm.
Now after 2008 crash, homeless are setting up in tent cities in US. Just Google San Jose or San Francisco tent cities to see images.
In UK local authorities are offering one way tickets to homeless to towns where homeless person knows someone who will put them up.
In New York, one way tickets are offered to homeless to warmer climates like California, less chance of death during winter.
455 homeless have died in UK in last twelve months.

The mobile homes would serve as a temporary measure to alleviate the problem. The fear would be that it would become the standard.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top