Situation for Longford people seeking a home is 'horrendous' says auctioneer

The situation for hordes of people in the county seeking a home is 'horrendous' and the worst a Longford auctioneer has seen during his 25 years in the sector with some three and four bedroom houses now priced at up to €2,000 per month and only five rental houses in the entire county.

IPAV President Fintan McGill is a long-standing member of the institute of professional auctioneers and valuers (M.I.P.A.V) and a council member representing the Leinster area on the M.I.P.A.V panel.

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Mr McGill is also a Recognised European Valuer (R.E.V) and involved with The National Association of Realtors (NAR) in the USA and he is the only NAR member in Longford.

He said recently "the demand out there is horrendous and it is unbelievable" with huge pressure on ordinary families, couples and single people seeking a place to call home.

"It is now 10am and the phones will be ringing non-stop between now and dinner time.

"I am meeting a lot of very sad people, people who are in dire straits.

"It's absolutely shocking and Longford is as bad as anywhere else and it's the worst I have ever seen during my time."

There were just nine rental properties listed in county Longford last Monday, October 13 on the most well-known website Daft.ie - just five houses and four apartments.

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Just two of the houses were located in Longford town, with the others in the Colehill, Ballinamuck and Ardagh areas and the average price of the houses, which were all three-bedroom properties, was €1,440.

The most expensive was a modern dormer bungalow close to the village of Ardagh listed at €1,900, while the most affordable was a house in Colehill for €1,150.

The average price of the four apartments advertised in county Longford was €1,288 and three of them were in Longford town with the other located in Ballymahon.

The most expensive was a ground floor apartment at Saint Albans, Battery Road in Longford town priced at €1,500, while the cheapest was another apartment in the county town at Colum Hall, Woodville Place advertised for t €1,000.

Recently released figures from the Residential Tenancies Board showed new tenancies in Longford from January to March this year were priced at €1,145 per month with a 10.2% increase in rent in Longford compared to 5.5% nationally.

Mr McGill said if they get a property to rent they advertise it and there was a time a few years ago when they would have three or four viewings on it.

"But now if you put it up online for an hour and take it down you'd have an open viewing and it would be very surprising if you would not have 20 people turning up for anything."

Mr McGill said the increase in rental costs but particularly the scarcity of properties has made it incredibly challenging for prospective tenants.

"One bedroom apartments are now commanding €800 to €1,000 per month, while two bedroom apartments are in the region of €1,200 and up to €1,400.

"Three bedroom houses now are a minimum of €1,500 with four bedroom properties up to €2,000 per month."

Mr McGill said there is some support for people receiving housing assistance through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) scheme, but additional rules and regulations are leading to a lot of landlords exiting the rental market.

"Don't forget that 52% of any rental income is tax so for every landlord who is getting €1,000 he is not even getting €500 of a return for it.

"Then he has all the charges and in some cases in some of these apartment blocks the yearly charge is over €2,000."

New legislation introduced by the Irish government will significantly restrict 'no fault evictions' ending tenancies for reasons such as wanting to sell the property for large landlords from March 1, 2026.

Mr McGill said this change and new RTB rules and regulations including the 'six year rule' has led to huge numbers of landlords leaving the market'.

"We now have a situation where if we are asking for a landlord and we send out a notice of termination (NOT) and we sell the property. in selling the property to an investor he can't put it back up at market rent.

"If the investor in the first place sells it because he's on a low rent then the new investors can only put it up by 2% thereafter.

"Whereas the tenant, and a lot of people don't understand this, leaves of their own fruition and if the property is left vacant until the 1st of March, 2026 you can then go to market rent on it."

Mr McGill said a "lot of landlords are worried about these no-fault evictions and the six year rule and that is why a lot of them are getting out of the market".

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The six year rule means if a tenancy was created before June 11, 2022, a landlord can terminate a tenancy for any reason when a tenant has rented for six years.

However, if a tenancy has begun on or after the aforementioned date once a tenant has lived in the property continuously for six months and has not been served with a valid Notice of Termination within that period, they can stay indefinitely.

"If an investor owns a property and he decides to sell it in 2027 he will have to sell it with a tenant in situ," Mr McGill said.
"If he sells with a tenant in situ. and a first time buyer wants to buy it sure it's no good to them, he can only sell it to an investor and herein lies the problem."