Varadkar hits the right note for Landlords

The political parties really are a bunch of spanners. Its echo chamber stuff where virtue trumps logic and renters suffer the most by the LL being pushed out.

I have no issue believing that certain people in government are buffoons who simply don't comprehend what they are doing. Others, I would opine do no care.

Then we have someone like Varadkar. I do not see a spanner when I look at him. Rather, I see a very intelligent man who knows precisely what he is doing, and it is his ilk that I fear are ruling the roost.

We often accuse the state of incompetence because we look at what its operatives do, and ask ourselves how they can be so myopic in their actions as to not see the harm that they cause. If the state were in the business of protecting the interests of the Irish people, this would be true. If, however, those who run the state have motivations removed from the public interest, then their actions seem less like incompetence.

Oh don't misunderstand me; I'm no bearded lefty. I'm not criticising what Varadkar is saying in this instance as I have no issue with landlords. In fact, I have rented privately from a few small landlords who were ethical and honest men. There is nothing at all wrong with making a profit.

I wasn't referring to Varadkar as a buffoon at all. As I said, he's not a foolish man at all, but what are his motivations? Mostly likely, it's simply his own political ambitions, but the office that he will soon hold again should be an office dedicated to what in the interest of the Irish people. When I say that, I do not mean "free stuff" or "tax the rich". Rather, I mean that the goal of any ethical government should be what is in the interests of the tax-paying, private citizen and the inheritance of future generations. The best way to do that, would opine, is to maintain a society that rewards hard-work, wise decisions and personal responsibility.

The current governance of the Irish state (and of many western states) seems to me to be hell-bent on establishing Ireland as yet one more cog in a neo-liberal / globalist economic unit where the population are merely wealth-generating assets. I won't pretend to have all the answers, but this is just how things seem to me.

If you are renting out a luxury property worth 1m why can't you profiteer.

People have a problem with 2 identical properties with vastly different rent caps, simply because of an accident of history. If 2 identical properties go up for rent at €2k per month and €1k per month respectively (due to rent caps), how is the LL of the €1k property profiteering by applying an inflationary increase?

I think that nobody can ever have the solutions to problems such as a housing crisis. However, there are quite a lot who will claim to have it, and some of them have drunk their own kool-aid. It is the latter that I fear the most.

Part of the problem, as I see it, is that it is virtually impossible to even have a discussion on it. Look at what gets said on this very forum. "That's a stupid argument", "You don't know what you're on about" or other such vituperative language serves no end other than to create a row and stall progress. Furthermore, there are too many proscribed topics such as immigration or welfare, and those who attempt to raise these very salient issues are often dismissed at best or outright hunted by twitter mobs at the worst, no matter how well made their arguments may be. How can any problem be solved if cannot even be candidly discussed?

I'm probably more cynical than the average soul, but I see little about the future that gives me warm and fuzzy feelings about the lives that my nieces and nephews will be growing up to "enjoy".

Rents have increased 100 per cent in some cases in the last ten years.

Any inflationary costs are have been well covered over the medium term.

Fair enough, it's a comparison to the low point of the market.

My point is rents have outstripped inflation by a huge margin over the course of many renters adult lives.

That rents should now be allowed increase by more than the CPI to cover landlords in the event they have to pay for a tradesperson isn't a valid argument in my view.

Yes I agree that "fair" landlords have been hard done by.

But at a time of record high rents, the idea that landlords need increases above the rate of inflation is predominately (entirely?) one floated by landlords looking to justify their own interests.

And look I mean that's understandable, everyone wants to further their own interests, it's how politics works.

I feel almost obliged to disagree with people on here trying to justify these ideas as somehow being common sense and almost in societies best interests as a whole.

No one is saying that anyone neds increases per se. people are entitled to charge market rent as a general rule for any product or service. The complaint is made that rather than increasing supply to match demand and keep rents at an appropriate level, the methods used are choking off supply, locking some rents at an arbitrarily low level and allowing other rents to be higher than the would otherwise be.

For the landlords it's self-interest and I don't mean that in a whingeing "landlords are selfish and mean" way. Simply that they are advocating policies which would suit them financially.

Everyone does it - from retailers, to the hospitality industry, to the construction industry.

But let's not pretend what's best for landlords (or any other interest group) is best for society or Just Common Sense.

Yes I absolutely agree some landlords have been hard done by and the nature of RPZs is that generally the LLs who lost out are/were the decent ones.

Well I do agree that the Government shoulders the bulk of the responsibility and they have at times tried to scapegoat private landlords.

Having said that, the government's inaction has driven rents to historic highs which is very much beneficial to private landlords so swings and roundabouts I suppose.