"As you can imagine, you've got 20 parking spaces, and we come along and say we're going to take out two of them or something like that to give spaces for people on bikes, it doesn't go down particularly well."
The housing charity Threshold says it’s had an increased number of calls from people who are being evicted on the grounds of “substantial refurbishment”.
“Our research repeatedly shows that the largest single cause of family homelessness is landlords selling up and using loopholes in the law to evict families,” says Mike Allen of Focus Ireland.
Some letting agents don’t limit the number of people invited to viewings of up-for-rent homes, so as many as 100 might show up. Some say it’s fair, others that it’s heartless.
Last year, we ran a series of maps showing how much you needed to earn to rent an affordable one-bedroom apartment in the city. We’ve updated them and, no surprise, renting’s become pricier.
Chris Lynch hopes greater transparency in the sector will push landlords to improve standards, and help those with a choice to make informed decisions.
Belfast has specific rules for “houses of multiple occupancy” but Dublin doesn’t. Even though the housing crisis means many are crammed into shared spaces.
If you live in an apartment, you probably haven’t been canvassed in the election build-up. Is that a relief, or a sign that apartment dwellers matter less than those in houses?
A lot of us need to face the fact that we’re not going to be able to buy houses, and we’re going to be renting for the long-term. The new Dublin Tenants Association thinks we should organise.
Until we build more homes, we need to raise the rent supplement, introduce rent certainty and make several other changes, writes Bob Jordan, chief executive of housing charity Threshold.
