We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
A GROUP REPRESENTING thousands of Irish landlords has been given a dressing down by the competition watchdog after threatening to hit tenants with new fees in the wake of rent controls being introduced.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) announced today it has concluded an investigation into “potential anti-competitive conduct by the Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA)”.
The IPOA is a national association representing approximately 5,000 landlords across Ireland.
The competition watchdog said that it started its investigation into the IPOA after a press statement issued in response to the government’s plans for rent controls in the private residential rental sector.
In December, the government announced that it would target ‘rent pressure zones’, or regions where there is sustained tension in the rental market.
Officials said they planned to cap rent increases in the designated zones to 4% per year over a three-year period.
However the landlords’ lobby group reacted angrily to the move, releasing a statement that said property owners “were considering a range of potential measures, including the introduction of a number of new charges to tenants and the withdrawal from state-sponsored rental schemes”.
Coordinating business
The competition commission said today that competition law “expressly forbids a trade association from coordinating the business conduct of its members, including the terms and conditions under which they are prepared to supply a product or service”.
It said that in response to the watchdog’s concerns, the IPOA has given the following commitments:
Compliance
CCPC chair Isolde Goggin said in a statement that her organisation “views any attempt to coordinate business conduct very seriously as invariably consumers will suffer”.
“The commitments provided by the IPOA allow for a swift conclusion of our investigation and importantly, ensure the IPOA’s commitment to fostering a culture of competition law compliance within its organisation and membership,” she said.
“While trade associations have the right to represent the interests of their members, it is important that they not only take an active role in ensuring their own compliance with competition legislation, but they must not allow or facilitate commercially sensitive discussions between their members.”
Several other trade associations, including the Approved Tour Guides of Ireland, the National Association of General Practitioners and the Irish Medical Organisation, have also recently been subjected to CCPC investigations.
Written by Paul O’Donoghue and posted on Fora.ie
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Watched generation f….d on rte last night..felt for the chap working and renting..imagine earning a relatively good wage of €600after tax…and paying 65%of it in rent….as he eloquently put it ,those in Leinster house have no idea of what its like to go to work not being able and afford to eat…keep up the good work Enda..
About the only one on that show. Someone who genuinely wants to work.
Dear god where is benjy when you need him? Although wait it’s Friday, probably spent his wages (aka dole money) on six of the finest golden Dutch beverages.
As an accidental landlord however I do agree that this is ridiculous.
I love how the government is making out the landlords are the bad guys. At the end of the day it’s the government job and responsibility to ensure we have enough social housing. What has the government really done in that area? More or less nothing. That’s the problem. If they built social housing that would address the supply, if there’s a high supply then the landlords will find that their rental property is at a low demand and rent will drop.
@B9xiRspG: People should be able to afford their own accommodation – if we rely on “government” taking care of it, it will never work. Government can simplify the way people will build more houses if needed, they may adjust taxation to make building better investment than land or ensure clear mortgage politics with banks. But don’t expect them to do something we should do.
Cortisola> They shouldn’t be therfore making it worse on those who have provided housing get for decades while the government weren’t doing their job. Instead they just heaped expense and taxes on them. 52% of my rental income goes to the state so they make more money off it than me. If a tenant doesn’t pay rent they then don’t do anything. A tenant breaks a lease and suffers very little if at all but if I break a lease I would be fined. Equity in the situation needs to come in.
Its plain to everyone who’s renting, especially in Dublin that the Landlords are essentially going for the jugular here. Their trying to make as much money as possible out of other peoples circumstances as quick as they can.
Its horrendous behavior.
This whole craic of “market value” within the rental market is complete BS. There’s just too many people in the major cities now. Who is in charge of issuing visas?? Could they not juxtapose the number of visas issued with the number of available housing? That would make too much sense I suppose.
So many people are being hit with massively inflated rental costs. If you rented your property for 1200 euro last year why is it suddenly valued at 1600? Sure there is a supply and demand effect here but renters are paying inflated costs and getting no extra worth.
I have personally seen and heard of multiple cases where landlords have demanded 20/30/40% increase on monthly rents…because they can. So its either put pen to paper here chap, cough up the extra or I’ll find someone else who will.
To those landlords reading this and who are actively managing their properties this way, shame on you!
What do visa’s have to do with anything in this story?
I have a rental property in 2007 it was 1,000 a month in 2009 I was lucky to get 700 for it. So should I recoup my loses for those years no the market is bouyant
No you shouldn’t. Invest in other things if it’s a high yield your after
What about when tenants threatened to leave a property in the recession if the rent wasn’t reduced and the landlord had to put to the mortgage ! no cap there eh
@Scorpionvenomm: The value of your investment can go up and down. Investment in property is supposed ot be longterm, you are to judge your success or failure at the end, not in the middle.
@Tammylee ..so you are suggesting landlords should get out of the renting sector to get a better return o their investment. .yes because reducing the rental stock will drive rents down ..educate yourself before you type.
@Imnotrodten: Supply and demand – isn’t that what landlords are saying now? Well that is how is was in 2007 – except it was in tenants favour.
Accidental landlord
@Scorpionvenomm: “What about when tenants threatened to leave a property in the recession if the rent wasn’t reduced and the landlord had to put to the mortgage ! no cap there eh”
You mean the house the landlord went out and bought of their own free will?
What you are saying is that people can go out and buy homes to rent out and be outraged if they dont have tenants 100% of the time. They must expect this from time to time. If they cannot afford to pay the mortgage if they have no tenant they shouldn’t have the house in the first place.
No there’s plenty of accidental landlords out there and tenants didn’t give a crap in the recession and demanded the rent be reduced to their advantage and it was leaving accidental landlord with no choice but to put too the mortgage,
so yes it swings in roundabouts, plenty of accidental landlords don’t want to be landlords
@Scorpionvenomm: fair enough i guess. I was more referring to landlords in the buy to rent sector.
I agree with you there but accidental landlords is what i’m really referring to should of been more clear :)
Imnotrodten, recoup your losses? What losses? Whatever you get for rent, you still own the property and it’s value has, almost certainly, increased. That also is part of your investment. If you’re not happy, liquidate to someone with a better fix on reality and move on. However, I suspect you are not unhappy with the overall package, but would just like more.
A rap on the knuckles……like that’s going to make a difference!
@Em Ni Mhurchu: Trumps inauguration in the US today shows that people can really make change, where the system fails them. A Family Home is a basic need in the hierarchy of needs and is essential for life. A Constitutional amendment is required to fix the broken (odious) Irish housing system, otherwise young people will continue to be abused long into the future. A 1-income affordable home for all Irish citizens is essential for a successful society.
https://www.change.org/p/referendum-on-family-home-special-status-in-ireland
I still have to add a couple of hundred euro to my mortgage a month . And I don’t even live in it . So who says the landlords are creaming it .
@robbip: exactly plenty of landlords have kept rents low for good tenants and are now being punished for the greedy ones. Some have to add to make the mortgage but you won’t hear that.
Government interference is the number one reason rents are rising. The most recent caps on rental rate increases coupled with 2 year freezes has caused a knee jerk reaction from landlords who otherwise would not have increased rates, but they were panicked. Ratcheting up of charges, income tax, rtb fees, LPT etc. has also been passed on to tenants. In the meantime, nothing has been done to increase supply or incentivise the building of more units. It’s all stick and no carrot.
Newly built properties are exempt from the rent cap. That’s the incentive to build
@Carty: So what your saying is that if you build, you get to charge tenants even more, and that’s a good thing is it?
You get to charge the market rent for the area. The more properties on the market the more choice there is for tenants and rents should hopefully begin to stabilise/fall. Hence why new builds are exempt to hopefully get developers to build more build to rent properties. Any existing properties that have not been rented in the last two years are also exempt. Another incentive to get people to purchase property, put it on the rental market and increase supply.
@ Carty: Fair enough, but being allowed to charge the local market rate is hardly going to cause a stampede. In reality, builders won’t build because there is no demand. Those who have invested in the past and are trying to climb out of a negative equity hole, were then kicked when they were down by the introduction of anti-landlord taxation. As a result, no one now wants to touch an ‘investment’ property with a barge pole. So the wholely inadequate ‘incentives’ you’ve mentioned target the man who isn’t there.
What those landlords are threatening is a disgrace.
When renting in the UK the tenant always pays the local property tax/council tax – it is a standard extra onto the rent throughout the UK.
The small landlord is squeezed out of existence with 60% tax and a further 33% CGT when selling.
The new landlord in Ireland is now the big international investor. They pay no income tax and pay low or no company tax with a maximum of 25%.
what street is that picture on I wanna live there?
@Lukey:
Is that Croker in the background?
Looks like Jones rd to me
Drumcondra.
Can anyone tell me for sure if the 4% cap is already in place? I cant seem to find a categorical answer on-line. My lease is up shortly and we are getting a reasonably good deal by current market standards. I am worried the landlord will add on a couple of hundred. If that 4% cap is already in place it will help a lot. Thanks
If you’re in Dublin it’s already in place. More info can be found on the RTB’s website.
Change badly needed: https://www.change.org/p/referendum-on-family-home-special-status-in-ireland
What a Change in the Irish Constitution would mean in practice for Irish Families:-
-Lower cost of build for both private and social housing – affordable (1 income) homes for ALL citizens in Irish society into the future.
-First Refusal to Local Authorities for building land in and adjacent to urban centers at agricultural price + 25%. Support lower infrastructural costs and lower energy costs.
-Only charge on a loan/mortgage is the asset – like US Law. You can hand back the keys – Risk Sharing between lender and borrower – No Debt ’till Death by EU Banks (legacy from 12th century serf laws).
-Mortgages based on “last selling price” + CPI (Scotland)
-No Boarded-up or vacant houses : Private or Social – unlawful
-No VAT on new houses like UK & NI – unfair regressive tax burden on first time buyers – unlawful.
-No Part 5 €5000 tax for social housing on first time buyers – - unfair regressive tax burden on first time buyers – unlawful.
-No council levy of €10,000 on first time buyers? – unfair tax burden on first time buyers – unlawful.
-No LPT on Family Homes like Italy. Shelter is a basic need a “Life Essential”. 2-Tier LPT Tax would be unlawful (LPT on Owner Families but no LPT on families in State provided homes)
-No hoarding of land to restrict supply to inflate price of land
-No restricted zoning laws to restrict supply of land to inflate profits for owners
-No onerous building regs adding €10K recently to price of homes
-No ban on Bed-Sits ……… essential for some in society
-Rent certainty .. related to CPI
€76,000 artificially added (mainly by Gov tax) to price of basic Irish House. Obscene.
have your say