Irish Times opinion : "Rents on studio apartments should be capped at €500 a month"

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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www.irishtimes.com

Una Mullally: Bring back the cheap bedsit. It should never have gone away

Why isn’t the price of rental accommodation linked to the size of a property?
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Studio apartment rents should be capped at €500 a month in cities, and at €300-€400 where they exist in towns and villages. This is still expensive for a lot of people who need basic accommodation, but it’s also fair, and much less than the mad amounts currently being charged.

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In 2023, some bedsits here rose to €1,500 a month. That record has been smashed. One North Circular Road studio, with a fold-out bed from a wall that doubles as a ledge-like “desk”, is for rent at €1,899 a month. This property (essentially a kitchen with a fold-out bed), according to the ad, “enjoys a strategic location” while also “promising a rich and fulfilling living experience”. “Perks” include “a designated bicycle rack”. Spoilt, so we are.

The thing is, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with bedsits or studio flats when they’re priced logically. But they’re not. This is meant to be cheap stock, but in terms of size, facilities and quality, it offers far less value than other accommodation in the private rental market, which is nonsensical.
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I’m going to propose something wild here, and suggest that the price of rental accommodation be linked to the size of a property. The measurements of rental properties are rarely even listed in Ireland, which must leave our European friends scratching their heads. How big is the place? Sorry, that doesn’t matter in Ireland when it comes to the cost. Where is it located? Not applicable. How old is the building? Irrelevant. Of reasonable quality? You’re boring me now, crack open the wallet.
 
Used to read her stuff when she worked for the Tribune. Avoid almost everything she writes now.

Yes, €1,900 a month for a tiny bedsit is mad but no one if forced to rent it. The price will then come down.

Yes, there is an issue with availability (although come up to Sandyford or Kilternan and see the amount of construction going on!) but capping how much a property can go for is the wrong way to go about things.
 
I love the suggestion that location is irrelevant. Leitrim v Ballsbridge. €500, € €300

Yes cos the site costs are linked to that.

The only way you could develop such a cheap place in cities is the cheapest tiniest studios crammed into sky high buildings and of course zero income for landlords. That is a great way to attract people into the market. Promise zero or negative returns

Daft as a brush
 
One of the reasons these were so cheap was because they were 20m2 or less, had an electric panel heater & the most maintenance they ever got was a lick of paint between tenancies. They were the legacy of a largescale movement of population out of the city in the 50s to 70s, and they got thrown on the rental sector because they were too expensive to maintain to modern standards.
 
Many friends lived in terrible bedsits back in 1980s Dublin. But generally in great locations.

The conditions were not great, often shared bathrooms, with other bed sits in the same building. Some bizarre conversions… and I’m sure a lot were not fire safe. I recall one shared large room with a rudimentary kitchen and a shower cubicle in it. Shared by 2 girls just out of college. But just off Waterloo road.

They filled a need in the market at the time. And they were generally just somewhere to sleep between parties and work.

As a Dubliner I was always relieved and also sad that I had to live in the burbs with my family.
 
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