The Residential Tenancies Board has said that many landlords are exiting the market as want to sell their property. The volume of termination notices received by the RTB in the first half of 2022 rose by 58%, compared with the latter half of 2021. Almost 3,000 notices of termination were received in the first half of 2022, compared to over 1,800 in the final six months of 2021.
Sinn Féin accessed these statistics, and the party is now calling on the Minister for Housing to convene an emergency meeting of stakeholder and opposition parties this month. There is concern that the rise in termination notices could impact the number of the homeless.
RTB’s summation is that during the pandemic there was a marked drop off in the number of termination notices being issued to tenants. But, over the past year that trend has reversed as more and more landlords choose to leave the rental market.
Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin said that the lifting of the ban on evictions during the Covid-19 pandemic led to a noticeable rise in Notices of Terminations. The eviction moratorium was lifted in April 2021. The number of Notices of Terminations in the first quarter of that year was 352, however in the second quarter, following the lifting of the moratorium, they more than doubled to 841.
“We do need to seriously consider the reintroduction of the ban on evictions; we do need to see an accelerated programme of councils purchasing properties with tenants in situ with notices to quit, but we also need to look at other measures like possible reform of the tax treatment of landlords. The best way to do that is to get us all around the table. Let’s do it in August and let’s put in place a plan,” he said.
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