Focus Ireland calls for urgent Govt action to help keep landlords in the market & reduce the rising number of evictions due to sale of rental homes
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Latest DAFT report warns of lowest number of homes to rent in 6 years as crisis deepens
Focus Ireland is calling for urgent Government action to help stop the exodus of landlords from the private rental market as the new Daft report shows a sharp drop in the number of homes for rent nationwide.
The DAFT report states there were just 716 homes available to rent on August 1st, down from almost 2,500 a year ago and a new all-time low in a series that extends back to 2006.
The charity said that the rising homelessness numbers is been partly driven by the sharp increase in the number of eviction notices received by the Residential Tenancies Board.
In the first half of 2022 the number of eviction notices jumped by 58%, compared with the latter half of 2021. Focus Ireland said it the published data show that the biggest rise in evictions is due to landlords selling their property. The PRTB figures show that in the last 3 months alone a total of 700 eviction notices were issued because the landlord was selling up.
This ongoing surge in evictions is having a significant negative effect on the homeless figures which now stand at 10,492 people.
Focus Ireland Advocacy Director, Mike Allen said: “The number of landlords exiting the market is clearly driving up the number of people who are homeless. Landlords leaving the market results in evictions onto homelessness but also means fewer opportunities to find a new home. In addition to speeding up on its promise to develop more social and affordable housing, the government must do more to ensure landlords remain in the market.”
”We have proposed a scheme which would allow landlords to build up significant tax relief on their income in exchange for a commitment to stay in the market while we work on building the new homes we need. Unless such a scheme features in the forthcoming budget the level of homelessness will continue to rise beyond the capacity of homeless organisations to deal with it.”