– IPAV predicts more landlords will leave market –
The Government’s recent strategy for the Rental Sector is deeply unfair to landlords who didn’t raise rents to the high levels of many of their counterparts and is flawed because it is largely informed by the RTB (Residential Tenancies Board) quarterly rent index which records less than 10pc of rentals, according to IPAV, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers.
Pat Davitt, IPAV’s Chief Executive says that while there are 320,000 tenancies across the country, just 30,260 new tenancies were registered in Quarter 3 2016, the period that informs the latest RTB index.
“The index itself is very accurate but the quarterly reports now published cover only new tenancies within any quarter. A policy that is informed by less than 10pc of a market is no basis on which to justify such major intervention in the private housing market,” he said.
Mr Davitt said that the RTB is in a position to know what actual rents are being charged and could publish data for at least four year lease cycles, not just new tenancies in any one three month period.
“That would give a much more rounded picture of rents, existing as well as new rents. The legislation brought in rapidly before Christmas is deeply flawed in that it punishes landlords who did not raise their rents, (generally due to the security of a good tenant and a level of concern for their tenants), to the current market levels before December 2016, particularly those in Dublin and Cork where the new 4pc annual limit on rent increases now applies.”
