The budget had some good news for landlords: The tax deduction available in respect of interest on loans used to purchase or repair residential property will increase to 100% from January 2019.
Local Property Tax – A review of LPT is ongoing and “any future changes will be moderate and affordable.”
Although there were only two property related aspects in Budget 2019, Eoghan Murphy TD did mention that a number of measures are going to be legislated later this month (October). These are going to be important for a number of reasons.
Please note that when these measures are legislated, they will most likely come into action over night and not at a future date or in January. Previous measures legislated have shown this.
1)
Firstly, Minister Murphy stated that he intends to double the current notice periods should a landlord want to terminate a lease. This is particularly important for anyone considering selling their property or carrying out refurbishment works etc.
We won’t know the exact details until they are announced later this month. Assuming that they literally double it, landlords may be required to give a tenant up to 64 weeks notice for a tenant in a property 8 years or longer.
So anyone who is considering serving a notice for any reason in the near future, should take that into consideration it over the coming week.
2)
They intend to “further tighten the operation of any exemptions”. This is most likely referring to the option of substantially upgrading the property so as to exempt the property from the rent restrictions. Most likely they will offer better guidelines on what constitutes a Substantial Upgrade.
This will be particularly important for anyone who is on a low rent and considering an upgrade to achieve market rates. We will advise further once the legislation is announced.
3)
Murphy stated that legislation later this month would do a number of things to strengthen the 4% rent caps. These will include:
a) provide that any breach of rent caps can be sanctioned
b) strengthen the powers of the Residential Tenancies Board
c) enhance rental data from RTB registrations to provide more transparency in rents being paid
4)
The first Rent Pressure Zones are due to expire at the end of next year, and as expected Murphy is considering an extension of this measure “given continuing conditions in the rental sector”.
Note: This guide is for information purposes only. You should always seek legal advice and never execute any documents without having first having sought advice.