Election 2024: Renting — No party has a plan to increase supply in the private rental sector
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All political parties have been focusing on building new houses, but none have come up with a plan to deal with the private rental sector, an expert in the market has warned.
While there are about 30,000 to 40,000 units being built each year, there is still a deficit of between 200,000 and 300,000 homes, according to the Housing Commission report.
Housing expert and author of Daft.ie reports Ronan Lyons told the : “The key issue is, what happens to prices next and how have we got to this point?
“In the context of the housing deficit, we have under-built in comparison to the houses we need in the country.
“If you’re only building 30,000 to 40,000 homes a year, with a deficit of 250,000 on top of that, this is not something we are going to fix soon, even the new government won’t fix this in its lifetime.
“The current government did make it better, but they have not fulfilled their obligations to catch up with what we need.
"It is going to be at least 10 to 15 years before we can look at fixing the supply of homes and correcting the structural issues."
The new government will not be able to fulfil the need for more homes in its lifetime, he added.
“This is not something that can be rectified quickly, we need a 10-to-15 year plan," he said.
Mr Lyons said if he was advising the next government, he would take a step back and look at specific plans.
“Every government wants to boost social housing — I agree with them on that — but there is a big gap in all the plans and that is in the private rental sector,” he said.
“They talk about cost-rental and affordable houses, but in the private rental sector, nobody has any plans.
“Freezing rents won’t help undersupply and might even scare away the landlords. Instead of making things better, it might make it worse.
“There are two gaps,” he added. “Gap one is around private rental, while gap two is development and uncertainty around building homes."
Mr Lyons said there were too many delays around buying land and securing planning permission.
“That process takes years,” he said “The current Government did try to fix it but may have made it more complicated.
“The Government has published the Planning and Developmental Bill, but it is the longest bill in the history of the State — and it makes it more complicated, they didn’t simplify it.
“It already was complicated. In most countries, you have either a zoning system or planning permission. In Ireland, we have both.
“So, someone can come along and say 'no' and everyone goes back to the drawing board.
“The whole process has become entangled — it is all muddled up now. The net effect is a very uncertain situation about who can build what and where."
Overall, Mr Lyons said prices for homes were up 10% year-on-year due to a surge of inflation, and the cost of a house will continue to grow.
“Inflation had eased off last year but it’s coming back and that is driving up prices. Interest rates are going up, and when interest rates go up, people won’t sell their homes, so the supply of secondhand homes drops.
“We are building more homes now than five years ago, almost twice as many. We have the professional construction sector, more apartment blocks, and things are better, but if you need to be building 60,000 homes a year, and we are only at 30,000 or 40,000 then we will continue to fall behind.
“It is one thing to have a high target, like all political parties have, but no one is telling us how it will be done, what is the mechanism in the policies and proposals to make it happen.”