Rental legislation

Yoda

My friend Joseph Little, an architect, as written a letter to the Irish Times, and has asked me to help bring this issue to prominence by passing it on to as many people you know as possible. Hence, I present it to the boards. I think he makes some very valid points.

He suggests that if any politicians come to the door we could ask them to legislate for the 'Three F's' for rental accommodation.

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From: "Joseph Little" <littlej @ gofree.indigo.ie>
To: editor@irish-times.ie
Subject: A letter on rental legislation for the Letter Page
Date: Mon, May 6, 2002, 18:32

The Editor,
The Irish Times

6th May 2002

Dear sir,

There is an housing crisis in Dublin. What the property journalists are calling a 'return of confidence' to the lower end of the Dublin housing market is in fact a last-ditch scramble by First-Time Buyers to buy a house or apartment while it is still possible, in the early Spring before investors returned to the market and now before the inflation that September 11th halted grows too great. Put it simply they see this as the last chance they will ever have to buy in Dublin.

Given that Sherry FitzGerald reported a 5.9% increase in prices, of second-hand houses in Dublin during the first quarter of 2002, this attitude seems entirely justified. What is shocking is that double-income couples on good salaries, prepared to take out thirty year mortgages for houses in modest suburbs like Drimnagh are increasingly being edged out of the market. If they can't buy a house what hope for single-income couples, or double-income couples on average or poor salaries?

The reality is that Dublin's property market is now hugely over-valued. If international magazines like 'the Economist' are signalling this, why isn't it being discussed here? I believe the only thing that prevented a crash in the Dublin property market after September was Ireland's membership of the EMU. If the market is hugely over-valued why are people desperately trying to buy? I disagree that the prime motivation is some misty-eyed attachment to 'the land' dating back to Famine times, but is rather a clear realisation that in this country rent money is dead money! And why is that? It is because in this country there is effectively no rental legislation.

The most common building type in every European city, outside of Britain and Ireland, is the apartment building and the vast majority of European apartment dwellers rent for life. It is extraordinary therefore that almost all of the large number of these buildings to be seen in Irish cities and towns, particularily Dublin, were built in the last 10 years. They represent the creation of a new building type for this country.

It is damnable of the last two governments that the rise in this building type and the explosion of the associated rental market gave rise to no legislation for private sector renting, or to minimum standards for apartment design or construction for that matter. While 'Threshold', the body representing the rental sector in this country remains powerless, the government has encouraged the most avaricious of investors to look upon the rental market as a high return form of investment.

In 1881 Parnell gained the 'Three F's', Fair Rent, Free Sale and Fixity of Tenure for the tenant farmers of Ireland. The succeeding 20 years saw a dramatic increase in those farmers' well-being and the country's stability. I firmly believe that there would be a reduction in pressure on the lower end of the house purchase market if the 'Three F's' were introduced. If fairly set-out and properly promoted they would lead to a stabilisation in house prices. It would also lead to the abondonment of the rental sector by investors looking for high-yields, which can only be a good thing.

If five or ten year rental contracts were available in properly managed, well-designed apartments close to the city centre I believe large portions of the city's population could be persuaded quite happily to rent, and without the requirement to commute from Navan or Lucan they might even forsake their cars!

I call on voters to use the Election to push this issue and I call on all political parties to put housing at the top of their agendas, not just in terms of mortage relief but more fundamantally by providing a viable alternative: by legislating for life-time renting.

Yours sincerely,
Joseph Little

Victor

Fair point. There has been some minor legislation in the last 10 years, but no, nothing like what is needed.