Letters

Housing, rent controls and eviction bans

Anti-landlord sentiment

Mon Jul 31 2023 - 00:07

Sir, – Lorcan Sirr describes as “theory, or even opinion” my assessment that landlords are leaving the market in droves due to overburdensome regulations, high taxation and continuing vilification and presents as evidence solely the apparently high regulations in four other European countries – Germany, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland (“Regulation and private rental market”, Letters, July 28th). I fail to see how the level of the rental market regulations in four other countries renders my point as “theory, or even opinion”. If the assertion is made to suggest that the regulation of Ireland’s private rental market resembles a normal European level, it is simply unsustainable.

I could point to at least 20 European countries where the regulatory – and taxation – burden on private landlords is lighter than in Ireland. The regulatory burden and tax treatment faced by private landlords in Ireland is unquestionably higher than most peer countries and is very much higher than those countries which most resemble Ireland in a cultural, social and economic sense. Further, no other country has the anti-landlord sentiment served up ritually by leftists in Ireland.

Looking specifically at rent control regulations, there is a persistent consensus among economists that these have negative consequences for rental supply. When regulations including rent controls were ramped-up in Ireland, many industry participants warned that these would drive landlords from the market. This has now demonstrably been the case, and last winter’s eviction ban, which Sinn Féin says it will reintroduce, is seen by property owners as the final straw. Heavy regulations, including rent controls and eviction bans, simply create supply shortages. – Yours, etc,

MARK MOHAN,

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Castleknock,

Dublin 15.