Government doesn’t understand rental sector

A meeting of members of the Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA) in Cork in recent days drew a capacity attendance and denounced a number of government measures. We heard that rent control or certainty cannot be reintroduced in Ireland as a viable solution to the housing situation.

Look at the experience of the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s: rent control was the cause of huge dereliction. Owners of rental properties were unable to maintain their properties due to the restrictions, which were eventually declared unlawful.

IPOA members were also frustrated with the Minister for the Environment’s handling of water charges with property owners responsible for handling the registration of tenants as customers with Irish Water, or in default, expected to pay the charge with a lien on their property for a service they wil not have benefitted from.