Budget a 'chance wasted to prevent mass exodus of landlords'

By Cate McCurry, PA

The Budget was a “chance wasted” to prevent the mass exodus of landlords leaving the market, a long-term landlord has said.

Maurice Deverell, who has been a landlord for 28 years, said there should have been more measures to encourage remaining landlords and their properties to stay within the market.

Mr Deverell, who lives in Dun Laoghaire, said there has been a significant decline in the number of landlords in the last two years.

He said the decline is attributed to tax regulations, Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) legislation and Rent Pressure Zones (RPZ), which he claimed have increased rents.

Mr Deverell, who owns property in Dublin and Britain, believes that retaining landlords can be done through tax reliefs on inheritance, as well as a capital gains tax deferral.

He did, however, welcome the Government’s decision to increase the rent tax credit to 1,000 euros per year as part of Budget 2025.

Mr Deverell said that if the large number of landlords leaving the market does not “open the Government’s eyes, nothing will”.

“I know from letting out places, the amount of calls, the amount of people who are looking for places, is unbelievable. I’m in this business nearly 30 years. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s actually frightening,” he said.

“The RPZs are the biggest thing of all which has killed the market, and which has made a lot of (landlords) move away from it, because it’s very hard to get lending on it.

“There’s an awful lot of reasons that the RPZs don’t work, and they’re really bad for tenants.

“They need to push out the capital gains, and they did this already between 2012 and 2019, and it has been shown to be successful. Whereby, if you stay in the market for another seven years, you don’t pay the capital gains on it.

“From that point of view, that would encourage the last remaining 100,000 landlords to stay in the market.

“I would hope that they would think seriously about the business relief because we don’t get business relief on anything, like a sole trader would.

“There’s no allowance on the local property tax. You have to pay USC (Universal Social Charge) on furniture. So for instance, if I bought a couch for a renter, and the couch cost €1,000, that couch gets depreciated over eight years.

“I theoretically would get €125 allowance back per annum. But I don’t, I get €125 less the USC, because the USC is charged on everything.

“We believe, as well, the capital allowance should be changed from eight years to four years.

“I’m also a sole trader. I get entrepreneur relief, I get retirement relief up to €750,000 tax-free, that I can add into my pension.

“I’m allowed pension deductions as a sole trader, but I’m not as a landlord. I can offset losses from other income, I can’t as a landlord.

“I joined a trade membership organisation and I get full allowances for that, I can’t as a landlord, and I also get reliefs for doing an education course, but not as a landlord.

“There is so much legislation now that is required and all of the legislation is in-depth but I can’t get tax relief if I want to do an education course about it.”