Fianna Fail, the unsung heroes of landlords

Without realizing it, Fianna Fail are helping the property owners, developers and landlords that (at least by reputation) they were associated with in times past, that they are doing it while trying to help tenants is the funny part.

There are 150,000 tenancies in Dublin and Cork that will be affected by the new rent control regulations, but we have to remember the timing of this because December 2016 is a key month for rent reviews and the start of January is also a fairly active month in lettings.

When Alan Kelly changed the rules in late 2015 it meant a lot of (2014 and before) tenants got a passover of a rent review because landlords didn’t have the time to serve notice, new rents also then started to spike as landlords priced in two years of increases upfront.

This means that for many tenants the two year anniversary is up this month. Landlords have to give notice of an increase but the new price kicks in from month 25 (January).

By delaying the current legislation it means that the law won’t change until January or later and this presents certain issues for tenants.

First of all, new leases are likely to price higher because we know the rules are coming (another AK47 type pricing spike) and it also means that any re-setting prices on existing tenancies will go way beyond the 4% because they will have about 10-15% of catching up to do along with whatever other premium can be gained.

This delay is a key move in favour of giving the property industry the time it needs to take higher prices, and in doing so it makes Fianna Fail the unsung hero of landlords.

(politically oriented sub note: The answer here is to roll over and take it on the chin, give in, alternatively other politicians will support the legislation and when this happens Fianna Fail will have lost their ‘lynch-pin’ status. This is a strategically weak and pointless move).

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