Renting on your own will be more expensive in the future with fewer bedsits
Renting on your own will be more expensive in the future with fewer bedsits
The deadline for upgrading rental properties is the 1st February 2013 and although there was a long lead in time to carry out the work required the long lead is time was also the period of the worst property and financial crisis in Ireland since the 1930’s. The biggest expense to bring properties up to standard is to ensure that all rental units have their own bathroom.
As most of these properties are period buildings divided into flats prior to 1963, this work is expensive, requiring redesign of layouts and in many cases reducing the number of rental units in the building. With no bank funding available, lower values and the removal of tax deductions for refurbishments, there will be a lot of properties which will be non- compliant in the New Year.
Anyone in a position to refurbish a pre-63 as an investment or back to a family home should see more value as owners will be forced to sell these properties as the deadline approaches.
The number of bedsits has not increased in a very long time, since 1963 when the planning laws where introduced for these multi- unit properties. More of this size of rental property has not been built as any new units would be at least one bedroom. Although these standards are long overdue, they will reduce the number of units available in the rental market and remove the lowest priced flats from the market.
The only other alternative is sharing a property which for some, this is not an alternative. You can expect the rents to increase on bedsits that comply with the new regulations in the near future.