Irish citizens in the midst of monumental societal change when it comes to home ownership

We are in mid-transition between a society where owning one’s own property was an achievable goal to one where it’s not so straightforward. 

In this brave new world, many people will go through most of their lives as tenants, rather than as homeowners. At the same time, our governments have been negligent in their duties to ensure citizens have enough homes, but at least our legislators have been keeping pace with the rental generation in updating legislation to afford long-term tenants greater rights. 

Lack of security of tenure was, for many years, a problem for anyone renting a property, rather than owning one. That has changed completely now and those entering a long-term letting arrangement have levels of home security that tenants from two or three decades ago could have only dreamed of. 

Even the very definition of a long-term tenancy has changed. Up until seven years ago, for example, a six-year tenancy was considered a long-term tenancy. In other words, a tenant wasn’t considered to be in a serious long-term relationship with their landlord unless the agreement extended to six years. 

Nowadays, that period has lessened to under four years; just one of the number of steps taken to normalise secure tenancies for tenants. 

In short, we have moved from a country with one of the highest levels of home ownership in Europe to one where our levels of home ownership have dipped below the EU average.

Much of this change is down to elements outside of the control of our country while more of it is as a direct result of government inaction over the last decade.

Thankfully, there has been more movement on the issue in recent years and there have been plenty of initiatives over the last year or so, with developments being built and inroads being made into the social and affordable housing stocks. Each time that numbers are added, there is a press release and plenty of publicity around the fact that the Government is making honest effort to increase supply in the choked marketplace. But is this making any difference yet? 

Rose Properties in Cork City is one of the Munster capital’s largest management and letting agencies and principal Mark Rose certainly doesn’t think so.

“Unfortunately, it’s still just a drop in the ocean,” says Mark. “Without even the slightest amount of exaggeration, I would advertise a property and I would have a minimum of one hundred people applying for it. More typically, it would be between two hundred and three hundred people all trying to rent the same place. So you could release ten schemes of social housing in Ballincollig, for example, and it wouldn’t put a dent in the situation.” 

It all comes back to supply. At present, there isn’t enough of it. Efforts are being made by the Government but it’s still too little and too slow.

In a year’s time, the chances are that the Government’s tardy action in relation to supplying more property for the citizens of Ireland will finally see results on the ground. Until then, however, the property letting and management scene is a challenging one, with agents spending much of their time having to fend off multiple queries from people desperate to find a place to let at a high price.

In the meantime, the sophistication and evolution of the property letting industry is developing apace; in an industry that has bloomed on the historically challenging landscape, coupled with continuing changes in legislation in this area.