Sinn Féin wants to stop exodus of semi-professional and accidental landlords

Dublinbay12 said:
Evidently currently the medium and small landlords (accidental) landlords are leaving the market. So why not look at specific incentives to keep those in the market.
Click to expand...
Because landlords, especially those with one/a few properties (who pay far more in tax) are evil. They are a scourge and must be rooted out. Then and only then, will there be cheap housing for all.
 
Im probably alone here in this thinking but the idea that we need more landlords is ludicrous.

The reasons landlords are leaving is apparently because they cannot maximise their rents and end up with 'devalued' properties.

Landlords do not build houses, anymore than owner-occupiers build houses.
Landlords enter the market if they can maximise the rental income, in turn they compete with prospective owner-occupiers for available housing stock. This puts up the price of housing and as more prospective owner-occupiers cannot afford to buy they are forced to rent, driving up rental income.

Im not anti-landlord, there is a place and need for them, but there is no need for more of them when there is limited affordable housing. We need more houses.
 
Firefly said:
Because landlords, especially those with one/a few properties (who pay far more in tax) are evil. They are a scourge and must be rooted out. Then and only then, will there be cheap housing for all.
Click to expand...

It's hard to understand why landlords are viewed as the worst evil people in the country when, according to the RTB's data, they provide one fifth of the accomodation in the country. Without landlords there might be a bigger housing problem as the government and state agencies are not filling the gap for citizens who can't afford a mortgage.
 
Firefly said:
Because landlords, especially those with one/a few properties (who pay far more in tax) are evil. They are a scourge and must be rooted out. Then and only then, will there be cheap housing for all.
Click to expand...
Don't be silly, 'The Rich' are the real problem. The Rich might be even worse than 'Employers' who think they are providing employment, creating wealth, paying tax and giving people the dignity of work but are in fact evil and exploiting 'De Wurkers'.
The Shinners will sort it all out though. We might find many of their policies populist, hypocritical, contradictory, self serving and generally daft but that's because it is us who are actually stupid.
 
SF will increase taxes on private landlords, many of whom are self employed and paying a marginal tax rate of 55%. The 55% FG rate makes it very difficult to pay down capital debt. The SF 1% wealth tax on ALL assets over 1m including private house, pension, etc. will wipe out most private landlords. This is never discussed. Many are getting ready to move out.
 
Nicklesilver said:
The SF 1% wealth tax on ALL assets over 1m including private house, pension, etc. will wipe out most private landlords. This is never discussed. Many are getting ready to move out.
Click to expand...
That's the ultimate populist tax. Pensions and PPR's are excluded but that constitutes 85% of all the wealth in the country. It's tokenism and shows that they are populist, not socialist. I think there should be a wealth tax and it should include pensions and PPR's. Defined Benefit pensions should be taxed at their open market value.
 
WolfeTone said:
The reasons landlords are leaving is apparently because they cannot maximise their rents and end up with 'devalued' properties.
Click to expand...
I'd imagine much of that is fear rather than reality.

Institutional landlords will have no fears of squeezing their investment for all it's worth, so we can't pretend that encouraging fewer landlords is anything but bad news for tenants.

WolfeTone said:
Im not anti-landlord, there is a place and need for them, but there is no need for more of them when there is limited affordable housing. We need more houses.
Click to expand...
Absolutely, but there are many who can't afford to buy, reducing availability of rental properties will only cause them further suffering while easing the plight for some who are better off than they are.
 
Leo said:
I'd imagine much of that is fear rather than reality.
Click to expand...

The fact is that there are today effectively no small-time landlords buying new-build properties, so there really is a suppression of demand in this area. 2005 levels of landlord-driven development were not healthy either, but there has to be a happy medium.

For me the bigger issue is tax over regulation. Gross yields for rental property in Ireland pretty good when you adjust for risk. When tax cuts your yield in half much less so.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
97% ?

The wealth tax would yield nothing in that case.
Click to expand...
Nothing from farms. Most farm income comes from handouts anyway. They are a good net source of revenue for the State as those handouts are from EU funds.
 
Last edited:
NoRegretsCoyote said:
For me the bigger issue is tax over regulation. Gross yields for rental property in Ireland pretty good when you adjust for risk. When tax cuts your yield in half much less so.
Click to expand...
That's a good point, it would be very much in the government's interest to encourage more private landlords. It would result in significantly more revenue.
 
We don't need more landlords, we need more houses and apartments. It really doesn't matter who owns them, they will still be lived in. The market is supply constrained. That's all that matters.
 
Reactions: Leo
Purple said:
We don't need more landlords, we need more houses and apartments. It really doesn't matter who owns them, they will still be lived in. The market is supply constrained. That's all that matters.
Click to expand...
If the small landlords are exiting the rental market and selling their property then that's probably not a big issue as the house is being bought by someone as their PPR or maybe another landlord. the potential issue is if the property is being left vacant for any length of time or turned into an Air BnB which results in one less property for people to buy or rent.
 
Peanuts said:
If the small landlords are exiting the rental market and selling their property then that's probably not a big issue as the house is being bought by someone as their PPR or maybe another landlord.
Click to expand...
another landlord isn't buying the property or any other property, that's the problem. The number of landlords has been declining for the last five years. Check the figures, 22,500 less landlords. These are "mom and pop" landlords who, by tradition tend to charge significantly lower rent than institutional landlords.

Yes they might sell to a person who makes it their PPR, but what happens to the renters of this and similar properties. If 100 of these rented houses are sold by 100 landlords and all sold to people who make them their PPR, where do the 100 renters go then? These are people who cannot attain a mortgage. Perhaps they only want a rental for 1-2 years as they will be moving countries, jobs etc. The rental market is made up of short term and long term rentals.

The problem in Ireland is the landlords are fleeing the marketplace year on year for five years. RPZ establishment and continual renewal of "temporary" measures, changing rental increases to inflation from 4% and then changing it again 4 months later to inflation or 2% whichever is lower. Making rental income subject to PRSI and USC meant rents needed to increase bt 22% just to leave landlords with the same income as before. The lack of any protection measures for landlords against tenants refusing to pay, yet loads of extra protections for tenants. The threat of Sinn Fein and their will they or wont they hammer landlords conundrum as well as the threat of tenancies of indefinite duration severely reducing the ability of a landlord in selling his/her property as well as the value of same.

You don't need to be a special advisor to government to figure out why rental crisis is going to get a lot worse before getting any better.
 
Agree, and the institutional landlords means the money is leaving the country. Private small landlords pay tax and spend in Ireland. Their policy is short term gain but in the long run domestic landlords getting a fair return is far better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register