Swords population over 68,000. Number of rental properties available 4 !!!!

L

landlord

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Swords Co Dublin has a population of over 68,000 and is apparently one of the fastest growing towns in Ireland. A quick search on Daft this morning (13/04/17) reveals only 4 properties of any description available in the whole of Swords. From regularly checking over the last few years, I can remember this figure being over 250 a few years back. This is absolutely shocking. Other landlords who have rented properties recently in any area will confirm the demand is unbelievable. Renting a 1 bed recently in Swords on the daft website resulted in my mobile battery running out of charge midday due constant email vibration alerts. The words "we are desperate" cropped up on numerous occasions.
The government have on their hands a crisis which is spiralling out of control. I believe they have absolutely no idea how severe the situation is.
In my opinion supply of rental properties needs to be addressed immediately and this should come by way of radical incentives for perspective landlords to buy and current landlords (accidental or not) to stay in the market.
 
landlord said:
In my opinion supply of rental properties needs to be addressed immediately and this should come by way of radical incentives for perspective landlords to buy and current landlords (accidental or not) to stay in the market.
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To buy what?
And making current landlords stay in only increases the number of potential tenants looking to rent.

The only answer is to build more. Build higher. But that will still need to be done in an orderly number so as to ensure we're not building rubbish and doing it in the wrong places.

I also believe a major contributor to our housing crisis is mass immigration. Its never really talked about in this context, especially not by the liberal media. But if you essentially have an open door immigration policy, an economy growing at high rates creating thousands of jobs, a large black economy, a generous welfare system...all in a small country.
Well then your always going to have a housing crisis, either through housing shortages in the good times or a glut of vacant properties when the downturns kick in. That's the way of the world now and it will only get worse as globalism continues to exert its's influence.
 
Delboy said:
And making current landlords stay in only increases the number of potential tenants looking to rent.
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How would removing disincentives to remaining in the residential letting business increase the number of potential tenants? Are you arguing that these tenants would all become owners as landlords exit the business? Frankly, that sounds like the kind of logic that fuelled the sub-prime crises in the US or our own property boom and subsequent bust.

It should be obvious to everybody that we need to increase the housing stock. However, if potential owners are not in a position to buy, without resorting to unsustainable levels of credit, then this is a circular argument.
 
Delboy said:
To buy what?
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"Cheesecake". ?????!!!!!!!
Sorry I couldn't help myself

"radical incentives for perspective landlords to buy".........residential investment property !!!

Delboy said:
And making current landlords stay in only increases the number of potential tenants looking to rent.
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I don't understand this.
The reverse of this from your statement would be to force All current landlords out of the market which would eliminate all potential renters from looking to rent. ???
Some people choose to rent even if they can afford to buy.

I agree that building more is vital, but developers have to be confident that demand is their to purchase their properties. Certainly on the investment side due to the governments draconian policies on landlords, demand has been stifled.
 
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landlord said:
"Cheesecake". ?????!!!!!!!
Sorry I couldn't help myself

"radical incentives for perspective landlords to buy".........residential investment property !!!



I don't understand this.
The reverse of this would be to force All current landlords out of the market which would eliminate all potential renters from looking to rent. ???
Some people choose to rent even if they can afford to buy.

I agree that building more is vital, but developers have to be confident that demand is their to purchase their properties. Certainly on the investment side due to the governments draconian policies on landlords, demand has been stifled.
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Cheesecake all you want!
I mean houses as you well know. There are none/very little being built. So incentivising potential landlords to get into a market with no supply is just adding fuel to the fire.

What more evidence do developers need that demand exists! Rents at record levels, house price growth in double digits, CB and Govt changing the rules previously brought in and FF possible just 1 more crisis from getting into Govt!
 
Delboy said:
Cheesecake all you want!
I mean houses as you well know. There are none/very little being built. So incentivising potential landlords to get into a market with no supply is just adding fuel to the fire.
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The country is full of builders who are sitting on their hands and keeping themselves fed and watered by doing small-time mickey-mouse jobs. As soon as demand materialises for new-builds and derelict property restoration, these guys will meet it. Temporary incentives can and will trigger this demand. Everyone wins.
 
How much more materialisation of demand do we need to see???

Basically, what's been said here is either higher house prices (more debt for the house owners, more profit for the builders) or taxpayer funded breaks to the developers. And in Dublin where house prices are growing at close to double digits currently
 
Delboy said:
How much more materialisation of demand do we need to see???

Basically, what's been said here is either higher house prices (more debt for the house owners, more profit for the builders) or taxpayer funded breaks to the developers. And in Dublin where house prices are growing at close to double digits currently
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Nothing's going to happen nationwide until market prices exceed the cost of building and leave sufficient room for profit and contingencies. Short-term incentives can help bridge that gap. In Dublin, the obstacle of land costs can be addressed by planning changes to permit tighter densities including high-rise.
 
So only 4 properties available for rent in Swords, but more than 300 available for short term let on AirBnB. The fact that these short term lets are so much more attractive than longer term leases is a huge factor affecting availability. Or more accurately, the fact that letting a property as a landlord is so onerous as to put so many off is a huge factor. Typically there's more overhead required for AirBnBs in terms or admin, communications, cleaning and handovers, yet this if far preferable to becoming a landlord under the current legislation.

Excluding holiday homes, there are ~200,000 vacant properties around the country, 20,000 of these in Dublin. Making even half of these available for rent would go some way to addressing the issue. Again we need to look at why owners are choosing not to make these available, or if there are issues in how the CSO is gathering and reporting this data.

Addressing the cost of building here is something that doesn't seem to be looked at. The percentage of build costs that go to the various government coffers should be looked at, along with construction methods employed here. The CIF and other vested interests ensure modern alternatives are looked down on here.
 
Leo said:
Excluding holiday homes, there are ~200,000 vacant properties around the country, 20,000 of these in Dublin.
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These figures are based on CSO official statistics which are a mile off. When I examine the CSO register [broken link removed] for areas near me, the figures are laughable.

Corr, a townland in Cornafean, is recorded as having 16 empty houses and 2 empty holiday homes(!). The small village of Kilnaleck, with a population of around 100 (which houses a small immigrant community who work in local food production) is supposed to have 91. There are barely 91 buildings in Kilnaleck, let alone empty dwellings. Arva, a similar small village, is supposed to have 108. Kilgolagh, a townland next to the Westmeath border at Finea, has 33. The village of Crossdoney has 63, but it doesn't have 63 buildings.

These figures could be as much as 90% wrong.
 
Delboy said:
More sticks, less incentives!
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Well, I certainly agree that we should have a more meaningful property tax (which should have been structured as a site value tax in the first place) to encourage a more efficient use of existing stock.

However, if (potential) landlords cannot make a reasonable (after-tax) return of a property, then higher property taxes will ultimately lead to the abandonment and dereliction of these properties.
 
T McGibney said:
These figures could be as much as 90% wrong.
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I've no idea of the real accuracy. The CSO were questioned on the numbers at the time, and they defended them saying houses were only classified as vacant if neighbours were unable to confirm whether anyone was living there and they showed signs of being unoccupied such as overgrown gardens after multiple visits including over weekends. The numbers reported in the CSO tables includes surrounding townlands as well though, so with Cavan as the axample, every dwelling in the county is covered by one of the 100 regions.

Cavan
Housing Stock (Number) 33,875
Vacant holiday homes (Number) 992
Other vacant dwellings (Number) 5,170
Total vacant dwellings (Number) 6,162
Vacancy Rate (%) 18.2
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The figures are still a mile wrong. They state 233 empty homes in Virginia, as per the census a year ago. There are currently no houses or apartments available for rent in Virginia and the situation wasn't much different 12 months ago. No way is there 233 empty properties in or anywhere near the town. There might be a dozen vacant commercial properties and there are a few long-derelict houses on the Main Street. That's about it.

I don't believe for a second that the CSO are repeatedly calling to houses with overgrown gardens up and down the country to check whether or not they are occupied.
 
The houses being recorded as unoccupied are just that, unoccupied. For the most part they are not being rented, and the CSO make no differentiation between empty houses that are on the market for sale, up for let, or just plain left empty for the long term by the owners for whatever reason.

The Virginia region covers 1,866 properties, so a lot more than just the town, I'm not there that often and I know a few that are empty. I can't speak for everywhere, but the enumerator in my area called to me several times trying to confirm a couple of unoccupied properties over a few weeks.
 
I suspect that a lot of people for whatever reason dodged the enumerators when they were doing their rounds.
 
Ah now the "hiding Irish phenomenon". They seek them here, they seek them there, they seek them everywhere. The empty houses are only empty because 200,000 people are living in confession boxes or holy wells.
 
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