Rent control Europe: France

Population: 66,689,000 GDP: $2,829,192,039,172 Avg. Weekly Earnings: €1,128.44 Avg. Apartment Price (Per. Sq. M.): €13,639.00 For 120-sq. m. apartment in city centre (Paris) Avg. Monthly Rent: €848.59

France boasts the second largest economy in the European Union, and alongside their German counterparts, are responsible for a major portion of the fiscal policy introduced by the Eurozone nations. French legislation is also among the most pro-tenant in the world, and this is coupled with the policies introduced by Francois Hollande, the French Socialist President, which target the wealthy.

Currently, France is faced with housing shortages of record proportions; despite government subsidies and tax cuts incentivising construction of rental properties, household investment is at its lowest point since mid-1999. This lack of investment puts additional stress on companies and consumers to create growth, and spur the recovery forward. Paris in particular is a popular destination for foreign investors, which has caused local legislation intended to curtail this absentee ownership. These housing regulations have made the situation worse, with additional restrictions on rents decreasing investor interest in the area.

There also exists considerable …

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Rent control Europe: Finland

Population: 5,488,543 GDP: $237,111,000,000 Avg. Weekly Earnings: €575.00 Avg. Apartment Price (Per. Sq. M.): €6,214.00 For 120-sq. m. apartment in city centre Avg. Monthly Rent: €887.30

Our second foray into the Nordic countries takes us to Finland; similarly to Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, the Finnish economy enjoyed unprecedented growth from 1999, when it joined the European Union’s single currency, until the recession in 2008. In comparison with the rest of the Eurozone, Finland’s recovery has been strong; in 2012, the public debt in Finland was estimated at 50% of GDP, significantly lower than the beleaguered Germans, for whom public debt was 80% of GDP.

Measured differently, however, the Finnish recovery is less impressive. In Q2 2012, the Finnish GDP dropped by 1%, whereas its nearby neighbour Sweden enjoyed an increase of 1.4% in the same period. In the same year, the Swedish government ran an account surplus of 7% of GDP, whereas the Finnish government operated its first deficit since 1993.

The differences between Sweden and Finland extend to their handling of property: while Sweden is staunchly pro-tenant, the practices …

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TodayFM: The last word on rent control/certainty

The cleansed expression ‘rent certainty’ is the same as ‘rent control’ irrespective of what anybody says to distance themselves from the two being the same.

There are different types (or generations) of rent control, but that doesn’t make rent certainty ‘not like’ any of them, what is often described as ‘rent certainty’ is in fact more commonly known as third generation rent control which in a nutshell is ‘price control mechanisms intralease’ or ‘within’ the lease.

This debate is an interesting one and we were very pleased to take part. This piece aired on the 28th of June 2016.

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Rent control in Europe: Belgium

Population: 11,250,585 GDP: $473,524,000,000 Avg. Weekly Earnings: €522.75 Avg. Apartment Price (Per. Sq. M.): €3,023.00 For 120-sq. m. apartment in city centre Avg. Monthly Rent: €970.62

In our ongoing examination of tenancy laws and rent control practices in the European Union now looks at Belgian rentals. In 1991, an uncharacteristic rise in rents, particularly in Brussels and the surrounding area, prompted a statute devoted to private tenancy to be introduced into the Civil Code.

This statute, which was reformed in 1997, aims to increase the equitable relationship between landlords and tenants, and ensure protection of tenants and their family housing. Additionally, the Belgian Parliament inserted into their Constitution, in 1993, the right to enjoy suitable housing as a fundamental right and freedom of Belgian citizens.

Belgian tenancy law is subdivided into two parts: federal law and regional restrictions. At the federal level, it is stipulated that tenancy contracts do not impart any real property rights to tenants, with little to no ambiguity, and there is little in the way of consumer protection legislation, other than prohibitions and provisions for recovery …

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Rent control in Europe: Austria

Population: 8,662,588 GDP: $386,227,000,000 Avg. Weekly Earnings: €531.00 Avg. Apartment Price (Per. Sq. M.): €10,807.00 For 120-sq. m. apartment in city centre Avg. Monthly Rent: €872.58

The next stop on our trip across Europe, analysing rent control policies and their effects on property markets, takes us to Austria. The Austrian housing market is complicated, even amongst European Union nations which boasts a number of improperly functioning housing markets. However, where many states in the EU began a comprehensive re-evaluation of their housing policy, Austria has failed to do so effectively.

Austrian tenancy protection laws and rent controls stem from the First World War, and despite the changing situation and the decreased shortage of housing, these rules are still in effect. As a result, there exists in Austria a two class society among tenants and landlords, of those whose tenancy is determined by ABGB (General Civil Code) or the newer MRG (Tenancy Statute).

Austrian tenancy laws are plagued by exceptions and counter-exceptions, and as a result, are quite complicated for the average tenant to understand and apply to their situation. Furthermore, …

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Rent control in Europe: Sweden

Population: 9,884,285 GDP: $570,591,000,000 Avg. Weekly Earnings: €842.29 Avg. Apartment Price (Per. Sq. M.): €687.51 Avg. Monthly Rent: €1,252.83

To begin our series profiling the rent control situation in EU countries, we will take a look at the impact of rent control on the private rental market of Sweden, with a focus on the capital city of Stockholm where the city limits are home to 900,000 of Sweden’s 9.9 million citizens. The rental market there is a relevant reflection of the country’s conditions as a whole given the importance of the city to the economy in general.

Sweden has perhaps the most pro-tenant laws in the world, and has been held up as an example for other EU nations investigating rent control legislation. The reasons for the attractiveness of the example are largely because people look at the terms tenants in an existing tenancy face. The issue that arises, however, is that in creating such a tenant-friendly environment, the Swedes have subsequently alienated landlords and generated a dramatic shortage of rental properties, that aspect of their market is rarely raised …

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Newstalk: Pat Kenny & Karl Deeter discuss ‘rent certainty’ and construction

Pat Kenny had Karl Deeter of Irish Mortgage Brokers on his show to discuss ‘rent certainty’ and some aspects of construction as well as why they are both concerns for the Irish housing market.

The issues are important for both sides, prices affect different sides of a contract differently and large swings can be damaging to one or the other of them. The answer in Karl’s view is longer leases which requires no legal changes, but this is not being discussed.

 

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‘Rent certainty’, it’s false promises based on false premises…

The Labour party aren’t fooling anybody with their calls for ‘Rent Certainty’ to be linked to the consumer price index (CPI), unless the nation is populated by financially illiterate people which I don’t believe to be the case. That is why it is correct of Fine Gael to resist measures which have already proven to be ineffective countless times in Europe and elsewhere.

We can take the sabre rattling of foreign investors saying they won’t buy here if we price fix as a given, and we can discount much of the clamour from the usual vested interests in property and instead focus on the economic facts (and fallacies) as they stand.

Firstly, why is it such a con-job? The main reason is that housing is only one aspect of what creates the ‘consumer price index’ and therefore it’s like basing the price of oil on the same thing, you can’t imply the cost of a specific item on the cost of a basket of consumables which are not related.

Correction, you can do whatever you like, it just doesn’t make …

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Tenants don’t actually want ‘rent certainty’

This post is written by Karl Deeter in a personal capacity.

I help to manage about 20 tenancies in different buildings, and lately we have been operating a new agenda which is very simple.

We offer leases of between 2 and 5 years. A two year lease comes with no rent review, a five year lease comes with a review in year 3 with a contractual clause that the rent cannot go up or down by more than 10%.

According to the commentary on what tenants want you’d think that people would be jumping at the bit for such terms and conditions? Think again, it has almost universally fallen on its face.

While there are people affected by rising rents, what they don’t seem to want is the time commitment that goes with a lease of longer than one year. Why is this? What is the trade-off?

We do ask why it doesn’t suit and get different answers, some people want to buy a house or don’t know if the will stay in their current job, others just ‘prefer’ one …

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Morning Ireland airs our idea to help the homeless

We were really pleased that Morning Ireland covered our joint idea with Fr. Peter McVerry on a way to help reduce pressure in the rented sector by giving landlords tax breaks in return for rent-freezes.

The idea is simple, you allow landlords to get full mortgage interest relief and offset their local property tax in return for giving the tenant a ‘rent freeze’, this can be managed via the PRTB who already link in with Revenue on some matters.

The clip explains how it would work, in the piece you’ll hear Fran McNulty discussing this idea with Karl Deeter

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