Latest news with #rentalproperties
BreakingNews.ie
5 days ago
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Number of homes accepting housing assistance payments drops 22% in three months
The number of available rental properties that accept housing assistance payments (HAP) has dropped by 22 per cent in the second quarter of the year, a new report shows. The Simon Communities of Ireland's (SCI) quarterly Locked Out of the Market report, from June, shows that just 32 properties were available to rent within the scheme. Advertisement This is a drop of nine properties, down from 41, since March. Ber Grogan, executive director at the Simon Communities of Ireland, repeated her call for an updated HAP limit. The housing assistance payment (HAP) scheme is a social housing payment made to landlords by local authorities, and tenants pay a contribution to their local authority. The report found 978 properties were available to rent at any price within the 16 areas surveyed over three dates in June. Advertisement This is a 17 per cent reduction from the 1,178 properties available in the June 2024 Locked Out report. There were no properties available in eight of the 16 areas, including Athlone, Cork city centre, Cork city suburbs, Co Leitrim, Limerick city centre, Sligo town, Portlaoise, and Waterford city centre. Four of the 16 areas saw a reduction in the number of HAP properties available since the March 2025 report. These include Dublin city north, Dublin city centre, Dundalk and Kildare. Advertisement This lack of availability was across all household categories within standard or discretionary HAP limits. Discretionary HAP limits include homeless HAP, the increased rate of HAP for people experiencing homelessness. The supply of properties within HAP limits are predominantly in Dublin, with a total of 22 properties in Dublin. Just five of the 13 areas outside of Dublin had properties available to rent within HAP limits. Advertisement These included Dundalk, Galway city suburbs, Galway city centre, Kildare and Limerick city suburbs. In Dublin, the discretionary rate allows up to an additional 50 per cent on the standard rate, but this is limited to 35 per cent elsewhere in the country. Nathan, a Cork Simon service user, said: 'Most of the time you ring a place, it's gone. You get fed up of every day doing it and then you just give up for a while, depressed out of me head. 'You can't get out of it (homelessness). I don't seem to see a way anyway. And it's not for want of trying. A bed, a bathroom and a kitchen. Basics. Oh, I'd love it. Advertisement 'Come and go as you please.' Sligo town and Portlaoise had the lowest number of properties available to rent, with just seven and two properties available in each area, respectively, across the three days. Of the 16 areas, 10 saw a reduction in the number of properties available to rent, including Cork, and Dublin, Dundalk and Kildare. Four of the 16 areas saw an increase in the number of properties available to rent, including Athlone, Galway city, Limerick city and Sligo town. Ms Grogan said the findings of the report must act as a 'wake-up call for policymakers'. 'Do they care that the rental sector continues to fail those reliant on HAP? Simon certainly cares,' he said. 'With only 32 properties available under HAP across 16 areas and entire counties without a single option, people entitled to housing support are being pushed further into homelessness and essentially, left behind. 'The rental market is failing those most in need. 'We urgently need accelerated delivery of social and affordable housing, meaningful reforms to HAP rates, and a targeted strategy to prevent homelessness. 'We must ensure that hope is restored for those people who are locked out of access to this accommodation option. 'The Simon Communities of Ireland has been calling for updated HAP limits for many years. 'We welcomed the ombudsman's report on HAP and will continue to call for reform. Budget 2026 will give the opportunity to address this cause of homelessness before our next Locked Out of the Market report.' Meanwhile, the figures show that there were four properties available to single person/couple households through a standard HAP rate. These four properties were located in north Dublin, Dublin city centre, Galway city and Kildare. There were an additional 12 properties available for single person/couple households within discretionary HAP limits. There were no properties available to couple/one parent households with one child through a standard HAP rate. There was one property available to couple/one parent households with two children through a standard HAP rate. This property was in Limerick city suburbs. There were five properties available through discretionary HAP rates, and an additional 10 that overlapped with properties available to families with one child. The five unique properties were in Dublin city centre, Dundalk and Kildare. Ms Grogan said: 'It's particularly concerning given that one parent families are over-represented in the thousands of families and children experiencing homelessness. 'Does anybody care that nearly 5,000 children are experiencing homelessness? Simon cares.'
RNZ News
6 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
'Mark your own homework': Healthy Homes checks under fire for DIY loophole
Photo: 123rf Like drivers issuing their own warrants of fitness - that's how building experts and renter advocates describe the new Healthy Homes Standards. Since 1 July, all rental properties across the motu have been required to comply with the new standards, which set minimum requirements for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture ingress and drainage. But who gets to say whether a property is up to scratch? Well, with no certification required in order to complete an assessment, the role could technically be filled by anyone. This has prompted calls for an independent certification system. Ideally, under the new standards, damp and draughty rentals should now be a thing of the past. But the New Zealand Institute of Building Inspectors isn't convinced. Chief executive Graeme Blissett, said the standards contain several loopholes. Not least, that anyone can label themselves a healthy homes assessor. "It's a huge problem, because there's no one looking at what they're actually inspecting and writing reports on is actually correct. "There are no guarantees because no one's double-checking what they're doing, and I believe that if you're charging $150, $200 to do a healthy homes inspection on a house, you're not doing it correctly." It doesn't take long to find companies offering Healthy Homes assessments - Checkpoint found a business online, offering to carry out a certification for around $200. But Blissett fears that without certification, many of these businesses will prioritise "quantity over quality". He said he's seen several certificates that ticked off each of the standards, despite the properties falling short. "The tenants [are] usually up to speed with these sorts of regulations and rules, so if the landlords do it on their own property and they get it incorrect, and the tenant finds out about it or talks to someone, and they've got a little bit of knowledge on it. There is a chance for them to be taken [to] the Tenancy Tribunal. "I believe there's fines of like $5000 or something like that for non-compliance." Renters United President, Zac Thomas, said the Healthy Homes Standards are a positive step towards a warmer and drier housing stock. But he's also concerned about the assessment process. "There is a mark your own homework situation where landlords don't even need to use an independent assessor in the first place. They can say that they are healthy homes compliant, that's the first thing. "But then the second thing is they can get this assessment from an agency that in many cases won't actually be complying or assessing to the standards as they should be." Thomas said that if the checks were completed by qualified assessors, it would give peace of mind to both landlords and tenants. "A renter might go, 'hey, please show me your healthy homes compliance.' They might be worried that the house is not compliant, and the landlord will probably show this, and then they might go, 'Oh well, I guess I have nothing to complain about'. "In reality, if there was a consistent standard, tenants would have the confidence to say, 'Okay, like this does meet standard, therefore I don't need to worry about going to the Tenancy Tribunal." University of Otago Professor, Lucy Telfer Barnard, said that as winter rolls around, if houses aren't up to standard, it's the tenants who face the consequences. "The tenants may not necessarily initially know that's why they're feeling unwell, but then if they do start to wonder, there's whole process that they can then have to go through to get those standards met. "To have that after the fact when they've moved in, in good faith, thinking that the property meets the standards, really isn't fair and puts a whole burden onto people." Landlords who fail to meet the Healthy Homes standards can face fines of up to $7200. Owners of six or more rentals that do not comply could be hit with $50,000 fines. A statement from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development said they don't assess how landlords achieve compliance, and there is no licensing requirement to undertake Healthy Homes Standards assessments. Moving to this sort of "WOF" scheme would be a big undertaking with significant costs and impacts. It said landlords need to satisfy themselves that the person they hire is suitably experienced and can undertake the required inspection or work to an acceptable standard. If a tenant thinks the property they are renting is not up to standard, they can make a complaint on the Tenancy Services website or apply for a work order from the Tenancy Tribunal. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
6 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Lack of certification required for healthy homes
The system for certifying the new Health Homes Standards has been described as being like drivers issuing their own warrants of fitness. Since July 1st, all rental properties across the motu have been required to comply with the standards, which set minimum requirements for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture ingress and drainage. Currently there is no certification required in order to complete an assessment, meaning nearly anyone can. It has prompted calls for an independent certification system, to ensure rentals are indeed healthy homes. Bella Craig reports. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
Times
11-07-2025
- Business
- Times
Is this the best town in Britain for landlords?
T he letting agent Ashley Leaper says there has never been as much excitement about buy-to-let in her town. In the past year her company, Letting Angels, which she started in Redcar more than 20 years ago, has had a surge of calls about rental properties. 'International interest has increased,' said Leaper, 47, who has an office in the centre of Redcar. 'We're getting more calls from investors overseas, especially expats.' Her experiences, however, do not reflect the general state of the buy-to-let market, suggesting that her North Yorkshire town is bucking the trend. Tighter regulations, stamp duty rises, the removal of tax breaks and new energy efficiency rules have increased costs for buy-to-let owners, making it harder for them to make a profit — driving landlords out of the market rather. HM Revenue & Customs research in May found that one in five were looking to sell up in the next 12 months.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
5 Most Profitable Cities for First-Time Landlords in the South
What makes a great city for first-time landlords? Affordability matters for all rental investors, but it's especially crucial to most first-time investors. Landlord-tenant regulation also matters. Owner-friendly laws make it far easier for landlords to enforce their lease contracts and collect revenue for their business. Read More: Find Out: Which raises another component of a great city for rental investors: yields. Landlords want to earn cash flow at the end of the year, after all. To keep the numbers simple when comparing cities, many investors use the gross rent multiplier, or GRM, which is the median property price divided by a year's worth of median rents. As you explore cities in the South for buying rental properties, start with these five. Median Home Price: $240,717 Median Rent: $1,488 Investors in Augusta enjoy a relatively low GRM of 13.48, compared to the national average of 14.97. Another way to think of GRM is the number of years it would take for rents to pay for the purchase price of the home (if you had no other expenses, which of course you will). 'Due to Fort Gordon and the thriving cybersecurity industry, Augusta offers affordability with robust rental demand,' said Daniel Cabrera, professional real estate investor and CEO of Fire Damage House Buyer. Georgia also ranks fifth on LawDepot's list of the most landlord-friendly states in the country, making it attractive for investors. Discover Next: Median Home Price: $246,017 Median Rent: $1,498 Rent tracker Rentometer ranks Memphis fourth on its list of best major cities nationwide for rental yield. Which makes sense, given its attractively low GRM of 13.68. 'Memphis delivers great cash flow for new landlords, but most investors overlook it, chasing flashier cities like Nashville or Austin,' said Eli Pasternak of Liberty House Buying Group. He goes on to add that flashy or hot cities tend to offer poor rental investments. 'Those cities have terrible rent-to-price ratios now.' Median Home Price: $368,374 Median Rent: $2,160 Despite being a metropolitan city with major league sports franchises and an extensive waterfront, Tampa remains affordable. It also continues offering a relatively low GRM of 14.21. Larry Shinbaum, real estate agent and broker at Luxuri International, points to the Tampa Bay metro as his first choice for new landlords. 'I think Tampa and St. Petersburg are goldmines right now, thanks to strong migration, job growth, and no state income tax.' Real estate accounting software Stessa agrees, ranking the area first in the nation for rental investing. Median Home Price: $257,856 Median Rent: $1,467 With its affordable median property price and GRM of 14.65, Birmingham remains a great place to buy rental properties. Rentometer ranked it second among medium-sized cities for rental yield, and Stessa ranked it third among overall cities for landlords. 'Birmingham works well for beginners because property taxes remain low and the rental market stays stable, with steady demand from medical workers and university employees,' added Pasternak. 'I tell my clients that these Alabama properties cost 40% less than comparable Georgia or Florida markets while renting for similar amounts.' It doesn't hurt that Alabama ranks first on Law Depot's list of most landlord-friendly states, either. Median Home Price: $357,233 Median Rent: $1,765 Jacksonville has seen huge population growth over the last five years, but hasn't seen prices explode. The overall GRM is higher than many cities at 16.87, but Pasternak still finds plenty of bargains in the affordable housing space. 'I work with clients to buy rental properties for $180,000 that rent for $1,800, giving them solid 1% rent-to-price ratios.' Indeed, Jacksonville ranked fifth on Stessa's list of best markets overall for rental investors. And real estate investment specialists RealWealth rank them second in the nation for rental investing. Florida also features owner-friendly laws, ranking fourth in the country on Law Depot's list. More From GOBankingRates Mark Cuban Warns of 'Red Rural Recession' -- 4 States That Could Get Hit Hard Mark Cuban Tells Americans To Stock Up on Consumables as Trump's Tariffs Hit -- Here's What To Buy 8 Common Mistakes Retirees Make With Their Social Security Checks This article originally appeared on 5 Most Profitable Cities for First-Time Landlords in the South Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
