Landlord - New Entrant Qs

When you say “being used”, are you living there?

Property prices have probably never been higher and there is always a risk they will drop. It may be worth considering selling and leaving the money aside for your child.

If you think you might want possession of your apartment in future, perhaps consider signing up to house Ukrainians, it is €800 pm tax free and as there is no tenancy, no RTB registration etc, you can end the agreement when you wish.

Knowing that there are huge challenges, and risks to being a LL, and bear in mind that if SF get elected to Government, those risks are going to greatly increase if there is a total ban on no fault evictions, do you really need the hassle at your stage of life?

There is nothing wrong with letting an apartment and it might bring in money. The first thing is to know the target market. The tenant profile is crucial. the quality of the furniture and decor can be important. A good letting agent, if you can find one is helpful. If the agent tells you that your colour scheme sucks, they are right. If the agent tells you to put in a dishwasher, put one in. A property will generally attract tenants at its own level. You won't get the dream tenant with a grubby apartment.

Let no tenant in without all paperwork in order. Check references.

You are going to get a lot of advice not to do this; the main reasons people give is

(1) prices are high and will drop

(2) landlording is a lot of hassle

(3) the laws in Ireland make landlording risky

Re: 1

The fact is that compared to most western cities, the rentail yeilds on Irish residential property are extremely high. You can get a place for 300k that will give over 2000k per month easily, about 6% yield AFTER management fees and agency fees, with very little long-term capital risk. Compare this to the 2-3% you get in other major european cities, or less in Australian cities, and it is very attractive. Hence why REITs exist. If your intent is to keep the pace fairly long term, then you can deal with any drops pretty well, and with no gearing (i.e. debt) you are getting the full benefit without exposure to interest rate jeopardy.

Re: 2

The simple answer to this is GET A GOOD AGENT. By good I mean someone who will find the tenants and do all maintenence. Ideally you want a situation where a tenant doesn't have your contact details at all, and everything is done through the agent. You'll pay 8-10% of your rent (plus VAT) for this service. I strongly recommend a local agent with a physical office, and a fairly sizeable book of tenants, and hence a large stable of repairmen etc. Ideally don't pay them for each tenancy, but a flat % of all income, so they are incentivised to get good tenants. Give them a threshold for all repairs (e.g. "don't call me for anything less than 300") and you'll never have to worry about it. Anyone who tells you this is wasted money is either a terrible landlord or doesn't know what they are talking about.

Re: 3

Overholding happens, no doubt. This is the big risk. The horror stories about overholders staying a year paying nothing and the laws protecting them are true, but in my experience are much rarer than you think. Some tenants are at a higher risk of overholding than others, and a good agent can help filter them out.

Also final tip; you need to write off every stick of furniture, appliance, carpet, etc when you rent a place out. Don't expect anything to be the way you want it. Get good solid furniture that you can replace easily (my agent uses Bargaintown, solid stuff, well made, cost effective) and comfortable mattresses (so tenants are less likely to want them replaced).

I've studied the manifesto of Sinn Fein pretty well in terms of their plans for property, and frankly nothing they are proposing will harm the investment any more than recent government have done with RPZs, poor enforcement, etc.

They know that more aggressive rent controls (e.g. "a one bedroom apartment must be capped at 800 per month") are probably impossible in Ireland without constitutional challenge, and are in fact aware that the RPZ are probably unconstitutional already.

Sinn Fein are basically saying four things to add to stock:

1. Vacant and derelict properties to be added to the housing stock.
2. Forward purchasing of private sector developments which would not otherwise get built.
3. Purchase of second-hand homes either with a HAP/RAS/RS tenant-in-situ (or vacant homes)
4. New Building Technologies

As well as that adding rentals via "Cost rental homes" (local authorities borrowing to build / acquire)

They are proposing rent freezes for 3 years, but that's not much worse than the 2% we have now. They are then proposing index linking of all rent increases, which is reasonably fair for long-term landlords, and similar to what we have now.

They are also saying "Banning rent increases does nothing to reduce the cost of renting for tens of thousands of tenants who are paying 40% and in some cases 50% of their net disposable income on rent." hence they are proposing a 2000 per annum rent rebate for tenants, exchequer funded.

So all in all, it seems that Sinn Fein are not especially landlord-unfriendly, despite the rhetoric.

OP i am in a similar situation to you but probably a few more years down the line. I will use my current property to retire to a place i have abroad. More than likely i will rent it out as i want to have a property here if i ever want to return. The first thing you should do is ask your children if they ever want to live in the property. I think thats the first thing you need to establish. As others have said talk to a financial advisor and a good letting agent to completely manage the property.