Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis na daoine a labhair sa díospóireacht áirithe seo.

An article in the Galway Advertiserin June, with the headline, “Huge rent increases across Galway”, puts this into context:

Over the last 12 months, rent in Monivea has skyrocketed by almost 60%. In early 2015, average monthly rent in the area was €568, but the last year has seen a 57% increase, with prices now peaking at more than €894 per month.

Over the course of a year, or 12 month lease, that represents an additional €3,912 that a tenant must pay to a landlord.

Not many Members might be aware of it but I did a degree in commerce and studied economics for a while. There is a fundamental flaw in some of the arguments put forward by both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. They argue the reason rents are increasing is because of lack of supply. That is only an element of what is going on. When I was learning fundamental economics, we were told another issue in the lack of supply would be vultures coming into a market who would be willing to pay more because there would be less of the commodity available. That is what is happening in many cases in our housing market.

Recently, a director of services in a local authority told me they try to buy houses which come onto the market with the moneys available to them. However, increasingly, they are seeing fellows in sharp suits, as he said, coming to sales representing the vulture funds. They will pay over the odds for any houses coming onto the market. It is a bit like the spike in oil prices and what is happening with sterling. Rents are increasing as a result of the increased yields these vulture funds are looking for on their investments. There is talk about accidental landlords. These vulture funds are forcing those landlords out of the market and putting rents way up. Essentially what one has is extortion supported by Government policy. These vulture funds are taking the large sums of money, referred to in the article from the Galway Advertiser, from the pockets of people trying to make ends meet.

There has been much talk about what is a normal functioning market. There are functioning markets in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. A part of their markets is having rent certainty. Mention was made of people getting out of the market. I would like to see the vulture funds get out of the market and not get as much money. I would like to see rents at a less volatile level. Rent certainty would deliver that. As for accidental landlords getting out of the market, there were some people who got involved in the property market at the height of the boom when prices were very high, as the auctioneers to my left would know, paying way over the odds for housing stock