Rental sector that is ‘fair to all’ needed for landlords and tenants

The director of the Residential Tenancies Board has called for a balanced rental sector that is “fair to both landlords and tenants”.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Rosalind Carroll said she wanted to see certainty in the market and a housing strategy that was "cognisant of where we are now".

“We need to understand the type of landlord sector we have,” she said. “We have 174,000 landlords registered with us. Typically, these landlords own only one property, the majority of them - when we last did a survey in 2014 - were not getting enough rent to repay their mortgages.”

“There is a need to look at it from both sides to ensure that what we don’t do is cause unforeseen consequences where there’s less supply in the market because people exit.”

The Residential Tenancies Board’s latest index shows rents growing by 2.3 per cent from July to September, a growth rate marginally lower than the preceding three month’s rate of 3.5 per cent.

The nationwide slowdown appears to be driven by a marginal fall in Dublin house rents of 0.6 per cent, although offsetting that decline somewhat was an increase in the average rent for Dublin apartments of 1.5 per cent.

On an annual basis, rents nationally are now 8.6 per cent higher than they were this time last year. In cash terms, this equates to an increase from an average of €897 to €973.

Asked to comment on Vulture Funds, Ms Carroll said there were a lot of different investors buying into the market, many of whom are buying from receivers allowing tenants to remain in situ.

“The Minister is bringing through legislation specifically to deal with issues where those investors try to sell off in bulk. That causes a problem to the market because it’s in a particular location and you’ve 30 people trying to find properties at the same time.”

Ms Carroll told RTÉ that legislation should be passed by the end of the year which would restrict sales when more than 20 units are being sold within a six month period. She added that the slow down in Dublin rental prices could indicate an "affordability cap" and that people had reached the limit of what they could pay.

“The graph is still going up. It has slowed down in Dublin, but outside Dublin growth is still high and continuing to rise at a rate nine per cent.

“We’re starting to see a growth in supply all over the country. There are new builds all over the country, indications are that we will have more this year than last year. That pent up demand is continuing and will into next year. Specific build to rent schemes in Dublin will help supply issue.”

The Peter McVerry Trust, the homeless and housing charity, has called on Minister for Housing Simon Coveney to urgently bring forward legislation to introduce rent regulation.

“Peter McVerry Trust is very concerned that continuing to allow the market to determine the cost of renting will only push more individuals and families into homelessness, ” its chief executive Pat Doyle said.