Sir, – Your coverage of the housing crisis correctly establishes that high rents are a major issue.
However, as a rural landlord of several small properties, please allow me to present another side to the story.
I have calculated that my net income after all expenses on a two-bedroom apartment in a good area centrally in Wexford town is about €85 monthly. The property is mortgage-free. There is strong legislation supporting the rights of the tenant, including anti-discrimination legislation, the powers of the Private Residential Tenancies Board, and the right to sue me in the High Court if a tenant is injured in my property.
The net income I receive is disproportionate to the risk involved, and when the current tenant leaves, I will keep the apartment empty, wait until property prices return to previous levels, and then sell the property.
I realise that this is an abandonment of my social responsibility, bearing in mind the current housing crisis, but I feel that I have no other option. – Yours, etc,
SEAN O’SULLIVAN,
Crossabeg,
Co Wexford.
Sir, – Rory Hearne supports an increase in the housing allowance payment ("How the Government should tackle the housing crisis", Opinion & Analysis, May 11th).
On this he is of one mind with activists such as Fr Peter McVerry, and also with politicians such as Micheál Martin, who in an RTÉ interview recently explicitly disagreed with advice on this matter coming from economists and bodies such as the ESRI.
Now I know that some people seem to get very upset at the idea of market forces having anything to do with housing policy, but would they please answer a few questions? If housing supply is the big problem, how does adding to housing demand through increased allowances help resolve the problem? If in the short-term housing supply is fairly fixed, how does one prevent the main effect of increased allowances being simply to push up rents further? If the answer to the previous question is to freeze rents, how does one prevent likely side-effects, such as the supply of rented property shrinking even further?
Rory Hearne’s opinion piece seems to have unbounded confidence in the State’s ability to solve problems.
He might have given some attention to the State’s role in adding to supply constraints, whether through the planning system, or failure to provide adequate basic infrastructure for zoned land. Increasing rent allowances may seem like a desperately needed move to some, but I’m afraid it is more like pouring petrol on the flames. – Yours, etc,
JOHN SHEEHAN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – Dr Rory Hearne of the independent “progressive” think tank Tasc suggests that rent control should be introduced to help tackle the homelessness crisis.
Is Dr Hearne not aware that a significant part of the current crisis is being caused by landlords leaving the rental sector in their droves due to high taxation and reduced interest breaks? The aim should be to attract landlords back into the market and provide a competitive choice for prospective tenants. Hammering landlords has meant that tenants have also been adversely affected because supply has decreased, thus allowing rents to soar. Bringing in rent controls would finish private investment in the residential property market, thereby reducing the number of rental properties available and increasing rents even further. Not very “progressive” for anyone. – Yours, etc,
GEOFF SCARGILL,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – James Pike's letter brings up this term "empty nester" (May 11th). I take great offence at this term. I live in a home. It is not a house or an investment, and it is definitely not a nest. It is my home. I have a family; we are close to all the amenities we need, and we have a social life. When my family are reared and leave, to lead their own lives, my wife and myself will still be there. We will still have the amenities and social life and, more importantly, the home we have worked hard to pay for.
We should not then feel compelled to move out of our home to make way for someone else and move into some form of one-bedroom apartment, of no matter how high a standard.
The problem with the housing shortage is that Fianna Fáil governments allowed the building of social housing to be taken away from councils and into the private sector.
The councils who have the waiting lists, not the private sector.
If the councils need to clear their waiting lists, then they need to build the houses. – Yours, etc,
ALAN FAIRBROTHER,
Knocklyon,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – James Pike suggests as a solution to the housing crisis “upmarket versions of student accommodation”, where strangers must share “living, dining and kitchen area”.
This would seem to offer the citizen all the downsides of life under communist rule without enjoying any of the benefits of that system.
Mr Pike is clearly proffering this as a solution for others – those among us who do not have the wherewithal to provide accommodation for themselves in the current profit-driven model.
The solution to the housing crisis is very simple – determine need and plan to provide social housing by the only model that has shown itself capable of achieving goals and which successfully emptied the tenements in the 1930s, the 1940s and the 1950s.
Not a lot of people got rich under that model, but thousands were afforded the opportunity to live out their lives in safety and with dignity. A worthy objective for our “new politics” Government. – Yours, etc,
JIM O’SULLIVAN,
Rathedmond,
Co Sligo.