Govt to do 'everything' to prevent evictions - McEntee

I think it was a combination of both the high price for sales and the fact that you could lose the income for up to 4 years and have your property returned to you in ruins and a massive bill to refurbish was the other side of the scales. As for getting favorable deals sure the government have set up schemes that you can give them the property for up to 25 years and they the government do all the work for you and give you back the property in one piece at the end. So that does not tally up with what your saying there is more government goodies for renting than selling and small landlords are still running for the hills

single property landlords should be discouraged and we need to move to a more professional scenario where the landlords won't or cannot out of the blue decide to sell and uproot renters who have put down roots in a community.Investment funds like solid predictable returns and we should encourage that type of investment/development in Ireland.If you pay your rent and adhere to lease conditions you should be able to plan years ahead without fear of losing your home.Failure to move to this model will mean we continue to have this fixiation with home ownership that appears unsustainable currently.

You see if they are in the rent for life model they are uprooted but if we had a properly functioning market they would either buy or be in social housing not renting from the likes of me into their 50's

Well you don't know. There are no stats on it.

This government and the opposition patently share a common goal of dispossessing Irish property owners and ensuring that the rental sector is controlled by the state and large foreign corporations (often UK based and benefitting from Brexit Tories) operating tax free, although that might be giving them too much credit to see a plan in this). That will likely work as more and more will just see that even if the property market is softening, it's better than putting up with persecution from the government. Others will carry on, not paying too much heed to a destructive and incompetent government, but it just means rental rate will continue to soar even as the house purchase market softens, and a landlord will be a harder sort. What has Ireland done to deserve a government dedicated to blowing up the property sector having wrecked tourism (anyone who comes to rip off Ireland is a fool now)?

I remember 8 and 12% interest rates. Current rates are nothing. There's articles about landlords leaving as far back as 2016 if not further. All that time rents are rising house prices were rising. All that's happened is the rate of leaving has increased and supply is tighter every year.

People have been predicting falls and interest rate rising every year for the last decade or so. Like a broken clock they will be right eventually. They might finally win a game of snap this time thanks to Brexit and Putin. As you say they'll claim they called it.

But call it every year and I guess you'll be right eventually.

This is not our first eviction moratorium. I doubt it will be the last.

If you look at 2007/8 the property market never actually stopped. Volumes, fell as did prices. But it happened over an extended time span. People bought and sold throughout it.

You can see the reports on who's currently buying...

You handed it over with terms and conditions as part of a business agreement... you need to get a grasp of that fact... one person is reneging on that agreement for any reason and it should not be the owner that looses out..

The cumulative effect (and this measure is surely unconstitutional so this kite likely won't fly) of measures and government attitude to Irish landlords will just simply cause more to quit the sector leaving the field to foreign investors the government favours. It's a factual surmise of what's happening.