Reactions to New Rental Laws

Homelessness is an issue of uttermost importance in Ireland. Two staggering numbers mentioned below are being directly addressed by members of the Irish government.

10,378 – number of homeless people as of April

3,794 – number of homeless children as of April

Eoghan Murphy, minister for housing, planning, and local government, blames short term renting (letting) as a big contributor. Ireland has seen increasing numbers of people immigrating over plus many British citizens are moving to Ireland due to Brexit concerns. With this influx of people coupled with an increase of short-term renting, many citizens find the lack of few homes for sale too expensive and are resorting to homelessness.

The new legislation will be going into effect on July 1st. The legislation mainly targets the multinational company, Airbnb, who allows people to post their homes for rent on the web. Owners who reside in a rent pressure zone (rpz) will be required to fill out a form at the beginning and ending of each year. Additionally, a ninety-day total limit per year will be enforced and each rental session …

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Even supply doesn’t fix a supply issue.

Housing is confounding, we are at a frustrating juncture where after a massive property crash brought about in part by a glut of housing we now have the opposite situation of a housing shortage in many areas.

Solutions abound, but no matter what happens this shortage is going to persist due to the time it takes to deliver housing and even if we announced a shovel ready, commencing tomorrow plan for 25,000 houses in cities the shortage would persist for at least another two years.

When you see various commentators saying what will or won’t work it’s almost arbitrary because nothing works in the short term, the main ingredient required to fix this is time.

Housing grants to first time buyers may push up prices, even if they don’t it doesn’t of itself create supply today. Many of the proposals will serve one side of a transaction without affecting price.

If we got rid of VAT would house prices drop? Or would developers merely pocket the additional income because of the fact that a price set during a shortage becomes …

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