Renting — A place to live is a basic need that profit alone will never deliver

There was no bad blood between the owner and us — he wasn’t one of these big-time landlords we often think of in these scenarios and there were a number of expenses piling up for him with the apartment, which meant the property was no longer a viable business for him.

But while the parting was civil, it didn’t make it any easier for us to navigate the rental landscape.

We scoured Daft.ie every day, trying to stay within our budget (around €1,300 or so — which is quite generous), but every inquiry went unanswered, or properties were being snapped up straight away.

Yes, we knew if we split up and each tried to find a room in different houses, we probably would have found a place faster, but we were both at a stage in our lives where sharing a house with four or five others just doesn’t appeal to us — and it shouldn’t be a case that we make ourselves unhappy by placing ourselves in that situation.

I was incredibly lucky that my job could accommodate remote working, meaning I could go back to my family home in Kerry while I found a solution.

Others don’t have that option.

I see posts on Facebook community groups every day: Couples looking for a place to live with their children; some with a baby on the way; or others might have a pet which is putting them at a ‘disadvantage’.

Renters are desperate, and completely at the mercy of landlords.

In my case, the only solution I could come up with was to save as much money as I could, get a deposit together, and try to buy a place.

It no longer made sense to be spending so much on rent when, for a little bit more, I could own somewhere. But even after saving a decent chunk of money, there are very few properties in Ireland nowadays that a single-person mortgage would cover.

This was one of the main reasons that I opted out of the Irish housing market completely and, like many more my age, headed for sunnier shores.

Power imbalance

There are many issues when it comes to renting in Ireland. One is that landlords have what seems like an unfair amount of power. Some tenants are afraid to ask for basic necessities and repairs in their home because they don’t want to rock the boat too much for fear that the owner decides it’s not worth the hassle and issues a notice to quit.

Some renters get a horrible gut-wrenching feeling in their stomach on seeing their landlord’s number pop up on their phone: What if this is it? What if he/she is selling? 

What if I don’t get my deposit back? Where am I supposed to go next?

That’s not a pleasant situation to be in, no matter who you are, what job you have, or what your circumstances are. That sort of insecurity is not right.

And I understand that most countries have issues with housing, but we could learn a lot by looking at the likes of Belgium, where short-term rental contracts can span from six months to three years (the long-term contracts can go up to nine years). In the Netherlands, rental contracts are indefinite, meaning there is no end date and the landlord cannot evict the tenant unless there are certain legal grounds.

These longer-term options offer a lot of financial security for the property owner, too, as they are assured of that income in the long term.

As well as these measures, a rent freeze and no-fault eviction ban also need to be considered. Tenants can no longer afford for their rent to increase, nor can they afford to lose the roof over their heads.

Supply and demand

The housing crisis in Ireland comes back to the old adage of supply and demand. At the time of writing, there are 68 properties available to rent in Cork City on Daft.ie — one being a house in Ballinlough for €8,146/month — but there are 124 ‘entire places’ available on Airbnb in the same area. (Lest we forget, Airbnb was originally founded so travellers could rent someone’s spare bed for a nominal fee.)

Throwing out attention-grabbing figures like “303,000 new homes” is all well and good — but we need to look at what is already built. With that in mind, I urge the next government to get a handle on vacant houses in Ireland.

While I do understand that there are some legitimate reasons for vacant or derelict properties, the very least that could be done is set up a taskforce in each local authority to make contact with the owners to find out what is the reason for the vacancy and go from there. As well as that, encouraging and revising the repair and leasing scheme would go a long way in bringing more properties back into supply.

In France, there is a similar and successful model whereby a purchaser can renovate a vacant home, hand over the keys to a social landlord, rent it for 10 years or so, and in return they will get some form of tax relief.

Compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) would also be a huge boost for housing supply in Ireland.

Recently in Cork it was a rollercoaster of bureaucratic nightmares when it came to the unsightly buildings at 62-65 North Main St, which the council acquired by CPO but legal difficulties prevented the sale of the buildings. Not only do these empty buildings continue to be an eyesore, but ensuring they are safe is another concern and expense.

If a semi-state construction company were to be established, it would go yards in refurbishing vacants properties like those into liveable social homes.

To our next government: Please stop seeing the rental housing sector as a lucrative business to profit from. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, shelter is a basic physiological need, and we need our government to see it as so. We have recently come into a pocket of €14bn: Let’s stop waiting for a rainy day. It’s pouring, and tokenistic efforts such as grants, schemes, and credits — while I’m sure are appreciated by the few who can obtain them — only go so far.

Please, don’t allow yourselves to look back on this time in years to come, and let our housing crisis be the great let-down of yesteryear.