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GALWAY’S APPEAL WAS obvious to Philadelphia native Parisa Zangeneh when she moved to Ireland almost seven years ago to take up a PhD scholarship.
“What put Galway on the map is its high-quality teaching, it’s right next to the ocean, and then you had its reputation as the home of the arts and all sorts of interesting people,” Zangeneh told The Journal as we chatted just off Eyre Square this week.
But after witnessing several colleagues “forced out” of the city due to “disgusting” rent hikes, with some leaving the country, she decided to set up a Facebook group for people weeking ‘affordable’ rental properties.
“I wanted to cap it at €650 a month but I’ve had to be looser. I don’t want people to end up homeless,” the Iranian-American added.
Zangeneh is “hanging on”, she admitted, thanks to a small granny flat that she pays €650 for each month – but the 42-year-old fears what comes next if she were to move.
That’s because new rental changes being introduced this weekend are making increased rents look more and more likely.
The Government has maintained that the new rules, which allow landlords to reset rents to the price quoted elsewhere on the market (‘market rent’), will attract investment into the private sector to ensure fresh supply of apartments and housing. The reset will only be allowed between tenancies.
Last year, just a third of of newly-built housing made it to the market to buy in the city – or 121 from 415 new homes.
However, there are fears in Galway among renters and homeless services that increases to rents for new tenants will heap financial pressure on the affected renters.
Renters who are currently in leases with their landlord are not affected by the changes and should continue to see their rent capped at 2% as per Rental Pressure Zone (RPZ) laws.
Landlords, for their part, have expressed confusion at the rules over recent months, leading to housing officials to issue letters trying to convince them to hold onto their properties.
There is also a worry that even renters in relatively secure situations will find themselves pressured to leave their current tenancies as months tick by.
According to Martin Graham of housing charity Threshold’s Galway office there are concerns landlords could “manufacture situations” to make things as uncomfortable as possible for tenants in the hopes that they leave voluntarily.
“Examples of this include not doing any repairs for months,” Graham said.
It’s almost a year since the state’s private rental watchdog, the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) flagged what it called “concerning trends” in the city’s rental sector.
The RTB found in that report that the average rent for new tenancies in Galway city was €1,730, placing it ahead of all cities aside from Dublin.
A key issue raised, according to people who attended a forum held last summer, included the “likely breaching” of RPZ caps for renters and students as a factor behind the rising rents. Lack of enforcement was also an issue.
When The Journal asked people on the streets of the city about their own rental situation this week, a number cited intense pressures facing them as a result of eviction notices.
A number of people who we spoke to in the city this week cited ongoing legal battles as reasons why they couldn’t discuss their cases publicly.
Many of this group said their landlords claimed to want to move family members into the property, but said they feared that line was just being used as a reason to turn the properties into short-term let tourist accommodation.
It quickly became apparent that those who have found stability in Galway city have usually benefited from arrangements within their family or social network to let them rent at a cheaper price.
Since that report by the RTB last year highlighting worrying trends in the sector, rents in Galway continue to outpace other cities.
According to a Daft.ie report this week, they were 11.4% higher in Galway last year, compared to the previous 12 months, while in Cork monthly rents were 7.5% higher.
The picture is about to change again, as the new rules kick in this weekend.
Critical to these are the changes around rent increases. Previously they were capped at 2% or the rate of inflation. But from tomorrow, rents can be set between tenancies or after a six-year period at the market rate.
One group organising on the ground in Galway is the Community Action Tenants Union, also known as Catu. Established in 2019, it counts around 3,000 members nationwide with 150 signed up in Galway.
Cian McCarthy, a medical device plant worker who sits on the group’s Galway committee, found himself getting involved after seeing rents spike since the pandemic.
McCarthy worries that an added effect of the new changes will be a shift towards larger landlords who may buy properties off smaller landlords.
While it’s been mooted that more properties being operated by larger landlords could lead to a more professional renting sector, McCarthy views it as meaning “much more resourced” landlords in disputes.
“Typically we can get smaller landlords to bend to the pressure,” McCarthy said, if tenants are being placed in unfair situations.
It’s almost an even split in city’s housing market between big and small landlords, mirroring the national outlook. According to the RTB, up to 53.3% of private tenancies in Galway were provided by a landlord that had 1-3 tenancies and the remaining 46.7% are held by landlords with 4+ tenancies.
Some adversarial methods measures used by the group have seen landlords bombarded with calls and emails if it’s believed they are being unfair to tenants or if they have not carried out repairs.
It’s been a busy time for Catu in recent weeks. Aside from meetings to discuss the new rules, they’ve had get-togethers for international students facing difficulties and gatherings to flag unregistered short-term lets with the council (‘Bring your laptop and report short-term lets’, declares their poster).
“It’s a reflection of the state of housing in Galway,” said Cáit Ní Ghliasáin, a social worker who recently presented to the Oireachtas Housing Committee on Catu’s behalf over scrutiny of the new rental rules.
Ní Ghliasáin was among a group who noted that this week, there were more than 800 properties on Air BnB in Galway city, compared to just 55 available to rent or buy on Daft.ie.
Short-term lets are a big deal in Galway and any discussion of housing is incomplete without them.
They’re also cited by Martin O’Connor, Assistant CEO at homeless and drug services charity COPE Galway, who told The Journal that their prevalence is “not sustainable” any longer.
“I know it’s bringing business to the city, but when it comes to housing you’re it’s robbing Peter to pay Paul,” O’Connor said.
Essentially, he sees the rental changes taking effect from Sunday putting additional pressure on current renters and “making it harder” for people the charity works with to secure a long-term roof over their heads.
The heightened rents will “squeeze” anyone looking for a home, he said.
He was critical of an “information gap” from the government about the changes – COPE and Threshold only got some clarity after attending seminars on the changes in the past few days.
“What’s done is done but it’s a pity we weren’t seeing this last October,” O’Connor said.
The new rules do promise what the RTB says will be stringent requirements for landlords seeking to evict tenants, particularly where it’s smaller landlords.
But for Ní Ghliasáin of Catu, renters “don’t have much faith” in the regulator.
“We are seeing regulations flouted again and again,” she said. “We really need to see the regulations in effect to have any hope.”
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