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Over 1,100 landlords issued termination notices in first three months of 2022 - RTB

In the first three months of this year, 698 landlords said they intended to sell (Stock image)
In the first three months of this year, 698 landlords said they intended to sell (Stock image)

More than 1,100 landlords issued notices of termination in the first three months of this year, according to figures from the Residential Tenancies Board.

The main reason landlords gave for ending their tenancies was that they wanted to sell their properties.

Joe Doyle, who has been a landlord in Dublin for the past 18 years, has decided to sell two of his properties. They are three-bed homes in Clondalkin, which he rents for at a cost of €1,200 a month. Mr Doyle said that high costs and low rent have forced him to sell.

"The mortgage interest rates are about to go up, so now we are getting squeezed because we have got our cost base increasing, but we can't increase the rent we are collecting on the property because it's restricted with the Rent Pressure Zones, so we have to sell the properties now, unfortunately," he said.

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Laws requiring landlords to register a notice of termination came into force in June 2019.

Figures from the RTB show the number of landlords ending tenancies has been growing steadily since.

There was a noticeable drop off during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, since the second quarter of last year, the number of terminations is on the rise again.

The RTB said in the second half of 2019, it received 367 notices of termination from landlords who said they intended on selling their properties.

In the first three months of this year, 698 landlords said they intended to sell.

Margaret McCormick, Information officer with the Irish Property Owners Association, said landlords are being forced out of the market.

"The legislation is complex, and really difficult to navigate, you really need to be a barrister," Ms McCormick said.

"And the rent pressure zones restricted the level of rent when they were introduced, but it didn't take into account the level it was set and it made it unsustainable for people whose rent was not at market value when it was introduced.

"Landlords now have a reduced income, but the costs have increased and then the taxation around the sector is around 50% without taking into account that it is not treated as a business," she added.

"Therefore, legitimate expenses that other businesses are able to offset are not allowed to be offset for landlords."

Dublin landlord Joe Doyle

A charity supporting tenants says people are being made homeless because landlords are selling.

Threshold Chief Executive John Marc McCafferty said that governments over a whole generation have "relied on the private sector for housing and the private rented sector for housing but there simply isn't the affordability".

Meanwhile, Mr Doyle says it is more attractive to sell properties at the moment than to rent.

"I can see worse times coming ahead, and all these measures they brought to fix things for tenants, they are not working," he said.

"I think things are going to get a lot worse right across the board unless they do something drastically."