Is Long-Term Renting Sustainable?

Lifelong renting is becoming increasingly popular within Ireland’s largest cities. Influential Cork developer, Michael O’Flynn, talked about instances when he heard of people suggesting that up to 50% of houses should be rented. O’Flynn heavily disagrees with this statement and suggests that ideas such as economic and pension polices should be reviewed.

O’Flynn most recently addressed this issue during his discussion at the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV). He set out to prove that retirees could not sustain a long period of renting properties and instead should have a house paid off to retire in. He asked the audience, “There are currently five workers for every pensioner, but the projection is for this to drop to two workers for every retiree by 2050. Have we considered how that will impact on pension income?” The renting model is not affordable for many classes of people and can cause severe economic troubles down the road when savings begin to dry up. Renting can be a great alternative for people moving to new areas or students and young adults in the …

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UN Sent Irish Government a Letter on Housing Crisis

The Irish government received a letter in March from the UN rapporteur, Leilani Farha, stating that, “housing in Ireland is moderately unaffordable.” The UN was using this letter as a wakeup call to the Irish government and made some very serious allegations. One of the allegations that the letter made was, “house prices are now approaching levels last seen at the height of the property bubble.” This statement relives a terrible time in the history of Ireland. The Irish government responded by saying that average households only spend one-fifth of their income on housing costs but acknowledged some prominent issues that need to be improved.

A couple of the top problems stated in the letter related to land hoarding and equity landlords. First, land hoarding occurs when investors will purposefully sit on a property to increase demand and lower supply in the area before selling/renting. This is causing major problems for citizens that are struggling to keep up with the increasing prices. The other problem is landlords, “have openly discussed policies of introducing the highest rents possible in order to …

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Single Parents and Migrants at Greatest Risk for Homelessness According to New Report

If you identify as either a lone parent, migrant, or a member of a traveling community then you are at greater risk of homelessness according to Focus Ireland. Focus Ireland conducted a report examining the drivers of family homelessness in Dublin. The overarching idea was many families are being evicted from private rental properties and unable to find another place to live causing homelessness. Many of these families have a long history with residing in the same apartment and should not be threatened with homelessness due to the rising property prices and shortage of availability.

Mike Allen, Director of Advocacy at Focus Ireland, appeared on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland to discuss his companies recent report. He was quoted saying, “the vast majority of the families surveyed had been living in the private rental sector without any problem until the crisis came along.”  Mike Allen has witnessed an increase in many property owners exiting the rental market especially those that are offering more affordable properties to rent. This is one of the many reasons contributing to the growing numbers of homelessness in …

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Regular wages and purchasing homes

In the current market, there is an increasing want and need for housing in Ireland, especially in populated cities such as Dublin. With this increasing demand, prices of homes and rent are rising each year. One problem that many soon-to-be or want-to-be home owners face now is the inability to effectively save for a home when they are paying high rent fees month after month.

The Central Statistics Office of Ireland notes that the average full time worker made around €45,611, while an average part time worker made around €16,600. Using surveys on these two numbers, we can say that the average worker in Dublin makes around €37,000 per year.

These numbers seem to allow a single person to be able to obtain a mortgage and afford a home, but if you were to add into the equation any additional expenses, such as children, rent or transportation, there would be a significant amount of money deducted from those average numbers.

The national average rent in Ireland is €1,122 per month. If you are interesting in living in Dublin, …

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Today FM The Last Word features Irish Mortgage Brokers talking about Ulsterbank loan sale

We were happy to take part in a conversation on the Last Word with Matt Cooper about the recent Ulsterbank loan sale, Karl Deeter was there for Irish Mortgage Brokers and Mick Barry TD was also part of the interview.

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Is the Housing Gap Increasing?

With an attempt to lift the housing market out of the current crisis it’s in, the Irish government is left to answer one very important question. Is the Help to Buy scheme even helping?

Or…is it worsening the gap of the home hunters who are looking for the ability to buy?

As what is already well known, house prices are soaring. Without the supply of housing increasing at any fast rate, this will continue to be the case.

Therefore, home prices are continuing to rise, much faster than incomes are rising, and the gap between available homes and affordable homes is continuing to worsen.

When looking at reports from CSO, the average wage in Ireland is €45,075 for a full-time employee. That number is, however, much lower as a median, where most of the working class clusters. The median is found at €28,500. A drastic difference and even more of a surprise when finding that, that means, nearly half the population is below that number.

This is where the Help to Buy scheme comes into play.

Introduced just earlier this …

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Renting Becoming Impossible

Renting in Ireland is an extraordinary and surprisingly busy sector to be involved in.  A sector that is shrinking at an exceptional rate. But only by individual growing…not by choice.

Recent surveys actually show that the number of available rental properties are at the lowest they have been in recorded history, while at the same time, less than one-third of people renting their homes are renting by choice.

The majority of individuals in rental properties are in it because they either can not afford the mortgage on available homes or have been denied social housing.

Renting is at best, the third choice.

The burden on individuals and families of paying rent also causes for a demanding financial pressure to be put on these renters as ⅓-½ of their paycheck is often seen taken by rent expenses.

Making it a difficulty for individuals to even get into the renting sector as a large portion of their income will essentially be given up.

However, it’s even increasingly difficult for someone looking to branch out of the renting sector to save the allocated …

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Current House Price Report

Recently released at the beginning of July 2018 was the housing price report for Q2. Though little differences appear on the surface, there are few small signs signaling a positive overall change in the market.

Home sale prices are currently up when compared to those of just three months to a year previous. This statistic is proven accurate for nearly all parts of the country, that is, with Donegal being an exception. Donegal typically is the outlier of the counties as Brexit is being found to have a strong impact on their housing market.

Because the housing market is still showing sign of increased demand coinciding with a weak development of new homes, it is predicted that the prices will continue to grow. However, with this most recent report from draft.ie, we see that the overall trend may be slowly changing as prices are only 5.6% higher than the current 0% inflation, being the lowest rate of inflation reported in nearly four years.

The last time Ireland has seen a similar situation to the one currently facing the economy was …

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Volatile Housing Prices in the Irish Market

Ireland housing price inflation has come to be of large concern to the public as a wider gap of the housing market will likely develop. Currently, central bank lending rules have been established and are beginning to be implemented as a way to slow the rate at which it is increasing.

Housing prices are still on the rise, as they have been in many recent reportings throughout the nation in current times. With tighter bank lending now being enforced more and more at a national level, the rate of inflation throughout Ireland has been seen to finally begin to slow down.

The second quarter of 2018 reported by MyHome.ie showed a steep increase in home prices alongside the slowest pace of inflation to be recorded in over two years.

The steep prices of homes have for a while now, been on the watch by the nation as a housing shortage has been of strong concern, affecting the living standard of many citizens throughout the nation.

As asking price inflation has slowed dramatically, Dublin has been feeling some of the effects.

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