NOWADAYS there’s a new breed of absentee landlord - the ones who are emigrating abroad to find work and can’t sell their houses so are opting to rent them for the duration.

Ken Morgan of Champion Lettings in Swords, Co Dublin, says he has been seeing four people on average every week who are moving abroad to countries such as Australia, America, and Canada, “a mix of young people and couples with children who can’t sell, often because they’re in negative equity,” he says.

Morgan says many landlords on the verge of emigration don’t realise that if they’re out of the country for 188 days, they have to apply for a new pps number and are treated as an overseas landlord.

He says that if landlords appoint an agent to look after the property, the agent is responsible for the tax returns but that means you can kiss goodbye to around five to 10 per cent of the monthly rent which agents charge in fees. He says being an overseas landlord can be a very costly business for some .

“We deal with one guy whose mortgage is €2,700 a month. He’s getting €2,000 a month in rent, €400 of that had to be stopped in overseas tax, so he’s only getting €1,600 a month.

“So he’s having to send €1,100 each month from California to cover the mortgage. It’s very hard.

“There’s someone else living in your house and here you are paying for them and you can’t sell it . Then you have to pay for insurance, management fees, the landlord levy, PRTB fees, and you also have to factor in that you may have a few months when the property is vacant.”

And of course many still have to fork out the rent on the place they are staying in their new country.