Darragh O'Brien promises to enact 'right to first refusal' for tenants before summer recess

Housing Minister says it will protect renters after the lifting of the eviction ban and will be balanced with tax breaks for landlords

Asked about this year's Housing For All targets, Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien said: 'We want to do more than that this year. I think we will.' Picture: Moya Nolan

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has promised to push new tenant rights to first refusal through the Dáil before the summer, despite not yet having the details worked out.

Mr O’Brien has said he is willing to guillotine the legislation that will provide tenants with the right to first refusal if a landlord wants to sell the property and will fast-track scrutiny of it in order to see it passed this term.

Mr O’Brien said the first refusal measure, first floated in March, will be “balanced” with budget tax breaks for landlords who want to remain in the market and those who want to enter.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Mr O’Brien said the continuation of the no-fault eviction ban would have punished “mom and pop” landlords who want to get out of the market, which he said the opposition has failed to acknowledge.

Mr O’Brien also said this year’s housing targets of almost 30,000 will be exceeded, but warned that meeting the targets in the years ahead could be challenging.

Asked about this year’s Housing for All targets, he said: “We want to do more than that this year, I think we will, I’ll make that prediction now even with high interest rates and issues that we’ve had.”

However, he added: “We can’t be complacent about this year either, we certainly need to look into next year and the year after.”

On the issue of providing private tenants with first refusal to buy a property if the landlord decides to sell up, Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien said: 'We will have it in before the recess. We have to.' Picture: Moya Nolan

Mr O’Brien said a greater focus will have to be placed on commencements and the use of timber and other modern methods of construction in order to ramp up supply.

It comes after the Green Party last week warned that we will massively overshoot our climate targets if we do not switch to alternative methods of construction such as wood.

The construction and building sector accounts for around 37% of carbon emissions, equalling that of agriculture.

Mr O’Brien conceded that the State is behind on the use of timber and other methods of modern construction and only 24% of social housing is timber frame.

As part of a suite of measures to protect renters following the lifting of the eviction ban, Mr O’Brien announced that he would be providing private tenants with first refusal to buy a property if the landlord decides to sell up.

Under the proposals, the property would be subject to an independent valuation and would be sold to the tenant at this price without going on the open market.

However, some have already criticised the plans, with Fianna Fáil’s James Lawless claiming they would be challenged in the courts.

Mr O’Brien said he has yet to receive the full details of the scheme which is currently being reviewed by the Attorney General. Mr O'Brien said: 

We will have it in before the recess. We have to. 

However, he said this could require a “truncated” form of scrutiny at Oireachtas committee stage, which could see it wrapped up in a week, adding that he would be seeking the “co-operation” of the opposition.

The minister said he will not be “coming in with a big stick” but it will be a significant change.

However, he claimed many landlords would be in favour of selling directly to renters and this has been evidenced through the tenant-in-situ scheme which allows owners of properties with Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) tenants to sell to a local authority, with 1,800 currently going through the process.

“I want to bring in a system that’s workable," he said. 

It’s not about constraining anyone’s right to sell a property. It’s about the first offer and the first refusal, so it will be based on an independent valuation.

“From what we’ve seen in Europe, in some countries it works well, others it doesn’t work so well, it elongates the process, extensively. I don’t want to necessarily do that.”

He said the continuation of the no-fault eviction ban would have punished mom and pop landlords who want to get out of the market.

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“If you think about what that means — for, let’s say, a self-employed woman or a self-employed man who’s actually bought the house — they could be a plumber or a carpenter, they could be working in a bank or whatever it may be, have bought the house as their pension. 

"About 84% to 85% of our landlords are individual mom and pop landlords so, as someone gets older, they might just want to sell regardless of what you do on tax and there’s a big cohort of them.”

He said that members of the opposition — including Eoin Ó Broin, Cian O’Callaghan, and Richard Boyd Barrett — would “completely restrict their ability to sell” which would have a massive impact on pensions and savings.

“Very few people have even talked about that element of it. So, what I want to bring in is something that’s fair and that works,” he said.