Why do Landlords feel entitled to rent increases?

“The rich get rich the poor get poorer.”

This is the battle cry of the work-shy underachieving classes of today who demand instant gratification.

I bought my first house 22 years ago, I could barely afford it, but cut back in everything to do so.

My current house was equally unaffordable, but I furthered my education for a couple of years in my first house and had some pay rises as a result.

Every couple of months I’d get a modest pay rise or small bonus for further educating myself and being of greater benefit to my company and I’d be able to afford paint, or a carpet or something for whatever room I was working on that time.

Nothing instant. All earned.

To quote Mel Robbins:

“No one is coming to save you. No one is coming to push you. It's all up to YOU.”

Average house price Dublin, year 2000 - €209,000

Average salary year 2000 - €36,000

Average house price Dublin, year 2022 - €406,000

Average salary. year 2022 - 49,000

Not really comparable between when you bought and now, is it?

When I moved into my house over a decade ago we had 2 doors, a door on the toilet and a bedroom, concreate floors, no second fix carpentry, a couch and a bed. Only room that was done was the kitchen, the outside was piles of rubble and mounds of earth. That may be on the extreme side but I just don't get people mortgaging themselves to the hilt for turnkey starting out.

You forgot the mortgage interest rate in 2000 was over 6% and in 2022 its just over 2%. Big difference.

And for older posters who bought in the 80's or 90's, historic interest rates were crazy, some years they were 14% and more. Monthly repayments vs net salary is what matters.

I pointed out earlier in the thread, I earned considerably less than the he average salary at the time.

The percentage gap was even greater for me, so in actual fact, it’s not comparable, it was considerably harder for me to buy than it is for someone on the average salary today.

So hard in fact, that I had to move two counties away and commute, but I did it. As I said before, you don’t have to live around the corner from your family.

Buy where you can afford to live comfortably.

The interest rate was higher and you also had to pay stamp duty separately from the deposit and the mortgage. All goods were top prices as was labour costs. Had to put off lots of work knowing we would have to do most of of it ourselves.

As I acted as a landlord for other properties due to family members age I have dealt with tenants personally for over 20 years. Different properties different tenant types. There are people who heavily rely on the state to survive and will never be able to work a decent job or live without state aid. They may not qualify for disability payments but they are also incapable of working in any real way. Unable to follow instructions or accept being told what to do. Worse when you see they have children and they end up the same. Totally different cultures run in parallel but that has always been the case. One tenant had a son and I watched him grow up. He was a bright young kid but I watched as he became like his family, stopped going to school around 16 with the mother saying she couldn't get him to attend. She told me how when she got up at 12pm she would find him still in bed and not gone to school. You couldn't tell her to start getting up earlier and waking him. He now is long term unemployed with very little education.

None of that is generational but part of the poverty trap of social welfare which is a culture in itself. Housing will sort itself out to an extent. Dublin is surrounded by suburbs full of OAPs and very low occupancy rates. Over the next 10 years about 50% of these OAPs will die. Housing booms of the 70-80s will leave a lot of housing stock but likely to involve houses being split as they are too big for individual buyers now. You aren't going to hear politicians say this but it is in the studies on housing they read and do understand. We have too much 3 bed semis in our housing stock but the distribution is poor.

Well, fundamentally it is up to the individual to put themselves in a position to buy a house. They need to have enough savings and a decent income. Of course it isn't a moral failing, it is really up to the individual to do what they want. Someone on the average industrial wage would be able to borrow around 175k, so they would need to make up the rest in savings, it would be tough in Dublin but it is doable, you need to get started early on the savings.

We had a tenant like that, lived with their child until eventually The System gave them a house to their liking. The thing is both parents worked and were well know, back in the day. One of them died recently and it got coverage on RTE and the papers, listing their contributions to Irish society. As you say, it is not necessarily generational, but once it starts it is difficult to break the cycle.

I don't see the average 3 bed semi being split. In saying that I have seen it done, but there was no planning and there in lies the problem splitting a house. I am from Rathmines, classic flatland. For years large houses are being converted back into family homes. You see less and less Pre 63 houses.

Yep, that’s what a lot of us have to do. We pay our own way in life.

Absolutely, there is something that feels very wrong about a city where the people who make it thrive don't get the chance to live within it, but that's the way of supply and demand. Very few of the people who build Ferraris can afford to buy and run one (to continue my metaphor from earlier)

As for transport, you're absolutely right that Dublin City has a terribly disjointed transport system. I'd even go so far as to say it's one of the worst capital European capital cities for public transport.

We probably agree on far more than we disagree, I just don't see a fairer system than a (within reason) free market where a person can sell their property/object/whatever for whatever amount they can get.

That's what you do man!

You put in the groundwork, move somewhere you don't know anyone but can afford a comfortable lifestyle, people visit you & you visit them. You spend your spare money on doing your place up, then just when you've got it the way you like it, prices & your income have risen enough that you're able to move closer to where you want to be, so you do it all over again.

If you can afford to live somewhere else, you don’t have to buy. If you are waiting for someone to help you buy where you want, buy a pipe, you are in for a long wait.

You better check interest rates too, since you are trying to compare.

And stamp duty. now that was eye watering.

My LL just send an email notice of rent increase of 22% when by rules he could have increased it only by 3,5%. And scratch the 3 month notice it has to be paid already next month. And I don't have much options than to pay this illeagal increase because it is still bit cheaper than other (only few) avaliable rent options. :(

And next thing I get notice that I have to leave this apartment because some of the relatives want to live here/to do renovations/sell this place and at the end I have to pay even higher rent. I don't see scenario where I can win