Buy to let - apartment or house

One bed apartments are (IMO) the most utilitarian investments in Dublin at the moment. Very specific target market; employed childless individuals or couples. They leave if they don't like the place, if they get married, if they split up, if they have a kid, or if they buy a house. They choose based on quality of place and location.

House renters choose based on a lot more 'emotional' aspects, and are more likely to have problems (where do we store our bikes, the garage roof whistles, the lawnmower is broken, that tree looks dangerous). I steer clear of renting houses for this additional layer of expectation, complication, and cost.

Apartments have very high occupancy if you get a good agent. Most landlords you hear complaining have no agent or a bad agent. Most landlords you never hear complaining have a good or great agent.

Apartments have very low maintenance costs even for high-end places. I only rent places with good maintenance arrangements management companies so if there is a block problem you know it will get sorted. I have an apartment 20+ years where the block has a live in "super" like in the US who does odd jobs and is the main liaison for maintenance issues. All the residents love him. All the agents who manage apartments in the block love him.

You'll get a lot of naysayers about the (very real) risks of rental in Ireland, here are my thoughts on this topic.

And FFS whatever you choose;

• give your tenants reasonably good furniture and good mattresses
• get a good agent who takes care of tenant welfare
• pay your f'ing taxes

Apartments have low maintenance, not so sure about that.

Firstly you have the ever increasing management fees.. secondly I have a friend who got a bill of around 20k from mgmt company for the roof I think it was, and years ago my brother had to fork out a bit to update something or other..

Personally I would never go for an apartment in Ireland…

I am a landlord, and would never use an agent, do it all myself.. tenants have been there 7 yrs, rarely get any hassle..

Suppose if you could get a good agent it might be worthwhile as you can write it off against tax, but I doubt I would trust an agent to pick tenants for me..

Commercial property is also hassle to find lessees.

The affordable property usually available can often be sitting vacant or about to become vacant, it seems like new potential tenants are limited to hairdressers & coffee shops.

Residential is easier to keep occupied.

I’ve been in the one-bed game for two decades. Good to have a variety of perspectives above though.

You'll find opportunities in the 400-600k range.

One advantage of commercial is you would normally have a full repair lease, so no call out for fixing something, hence you don't need to restrict yourself to an an easily reachable location.

Though a quick search does show a few one beds at reasonable price. I particularly like https://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/12-brownsbarn-gardens-kingswood-cross-citywest-dublin-22/4836416

I would try to have at least 60sq m as this would all for a workspace to be created.

Those at 41-45sq are tiny

Management fees are entirely tax deductible so don't let those put you off.

Personally I'd go with the apartment, more control over who you let to

I'd agree with the above, I don't see any value right now, definitely not from a medium to long term capital appreciation view.

The old truism probably still exists, location, location, location.

I bought a 3 bed semi as a holiday home in 2020 for 170k, the one attached to it sold a few months ago for 385k. Another one just up the estate is now listed for 400k. Seriously thinking of flipping it then I look at hotel prices to take the kids away and can't bring myself to pay them.

The market is gone out of hand. How and when it ends I can't even guess, this can't continue though. I've had Irish employees leave the country as they can't afford to rent. Something has to give.

That dependency is dangerous, shareholders constantly chasing gains can't be good for Ireland as we're looking expensive. We're way to reliant on large multinationals while squeezing local sustainable businesses to the edge of extinction with constantly rising costs.

You have your reading of the market, I have mine

I wouldn't invest in BTL right now in Ireland, I'd have zero reservations however about buying a one bed apartment regardless of market conditions

Yes they do, all cycles end

I meant I'd have no reservation about buying a one bed apartment at what I saw was the right time

BTL is different to buying a home and for me assets are currently in bubble territory

Let's not go to pedantic town today