The government must come up with a solution to protect tenants as figures reveal that landlords are continuing to leave the market.
The call comes from Sinn Fein as figures from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland reveal that four in every ten houses sold in 2022 came from a small landlord exiting the rental market in the final three months of the year.
The rental market has shrunk by 43,000 homes in the last five years, according to an unpublished draft survey by the Residential Tenancies Board.
Sinn Fein housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin told Newstalk that local authorities should be able to purchase properties being sold by landlords.
"What I'd like to see government do is find a way to ensure that, as those landlords sell up, and they're perfectly entitled to do so, the tenants remain in situ", he said.
"That could mean, for example, more acquisitions of those rental properties by local authorities at market value to keep local rental tenants in situ, but also allowing approved housing bodies to purchase those properties to leave the tenants in place as affordable as affordable cost-rental tenants."
'Bailout'
Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien has dismissed Ó Broin's claims the Government is bailing out developers over plans to buy apartments.
It emerged this week that the coalition is considering the advance purchase of apartments, which already have planning permission, before they are built to speed up construction.
Minister O'Brien told The Hard Shoulder that it is about helping people.
"What it is is about providing homes for people to live in, and for people to buy at an affordable rate.
"We've seen the highest amount of first-time buyers in the last 12 months, and we've seen in well over a decade over 16,000 households able to buy their first home.
"We need to tackle the affordability piece, that's why I brought in the First Home Shared Equity Scheme.
"[It] is helping a lot of people who are stuck renting, or living with their folks, to actually be able to bridge the affordability gap by the State stepping in and providing that assistance".
Housing construction Ireland. Terraced houses in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland.'Far from perfect'
Minister O'Brien said mechanisms to help first-time buyers are working but that "one thing is not going to sort everything out".
"It needs a combination of measures - the housing system as we have right now is far from perfect, I know that", he said.
"The locked-out generation, that are listening to your show and others, and that I talk to all the time... who are saying 'How can I buy my own home?'
"I've now brought in mechanisms to help people do that and thankfully, even in a short space of time since July, that's actually happening now," he added.
Main image shows Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin TD. Picture by: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie
