Sir, – Terry Moylan is clearly correct is saying that rents just don’t “go up”, they are put up by landlords (December 21st). However, I hope Mr Moylan also accepts that rents don’t just “go down”, they are brought down by tenants. Mr Moylan in his haste may have forgotten that in the recent property crash rents plummeted by up to 50 per cent. During this time landlords feared contact from their tenants, as usually it was for a rent reduction or to receive notice that they were leaving to avail of lower rents elsewhere. This was “the market”.
To put a bit of context on the discussion, I would refer readers to the Residential Tenancies Board recent statistic that on average rents are 7 per cent higher than their peak approximately 10 years ago. Therefore, rents have increased by less than 1 per cent per year over the last 10 years. This is the reality that virtually every political activist and commentator chooses to ignore while discussing rent increases. It’s much easier to demonise “greedy rack rent landlords” while ignoring the overall picture.
Finally, I would ask Mr Moylan and anyone with a similar thought process one question. Buy a property and see how much it needs to be leased for in order to at least break even on a yearly basis. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN CULLEN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.