Renter quoted €2,850 a month for studio in Rathmines co-living

Oisín Fagan had been keeping a close eye on Daft.ie, he says, so he was quick off the mark when the adverts went up for studio apartments in Niche Living in Rathmines.

The listing says “from €1,895”.

So he and his wife thought they could afford that for two or three months – and not have to commute two hours each way to work – while they found somewhere longer-term in Dublin, he says. “We’re just looking for a place.”

After a tour of the place on 13 August, though, Fagan was quoted much higher rates.

He could book two or three months for €2,850 a month, said a Niche Living manager, in an email. Or, three to five months for €2,500 a month, or six months or more for €2,250 a month.

In July 2019, when Bartra Property (Rathmines) Limited applied for planning permission for the shared-living complex, it indicated that rents would be around €1,300 a month.

And, stressed how the complex “could make a significant contribution to the housing crisis” and an option for those “otherwise being priced out of both the rental and purchase residential markets”.

But the quoted rents meant Fagan and his wife were done with the idea of renting there, he says. “I don’t know what kind of person could afford €2,850.”

That the Niche Living manager lay out staggered rates – and said it usually expects three-months rent in advance – suggests that the landlord considers those who stay there to be licensees rather than tenants.

And, that it considers the studios to not be covered by the rental laws restricting how high and how often rents can be set in rent-pressure zones (RPZs), like Dublin.

In January 2023, Fianna Fáil Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said he would look at whether to bring co-living under the RPZ laws – as normal apartments and student accommodation are.

He made the comments after Bartra’s Niche Living complex in Dún Laoghaire got up and running, with advertised rents of €1,880 a month, almost €800 more than had been suggested in the developer’s planning application.

Gavin Elliott, a barrister and expert in housing law, says that in his view many renters in co-living schemes would be tenants, rather than licensees, by law and so covered already. It does depend on the arrangement, he says, and things “like whether they’re moved between rooms”.

And the RTB spokesperson said, “Each co-living arrangement would need to be examined on a case-by-case basis to understand if they are covered by the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Housing didn’t directly say whether it had looked at clearly bringing co-living under these RPZ rules, and what was decided and why.

The department spokesperson said that, “If a dispute arises as to whether a purported licence in a co-living dwelling is in fact a tenancy, the RTB can determine the matter and if it is a tenancy, the Residential Tenancies Acts apply.”

And, the whole system of RPZs is to be reviewed anyway, they said. That review “will inform the operation and application of RPZs.”

Elliott, the barrister, says the rates for Niche Living in Rathmines do perhaps give some indication of what to expect should rent-controls be lifted entirely. “You would be in a Wild West scenario.”

Neither Bartra nor Niche Living responded to queries sent on Monday asking why the Rathmines rents were so much higher than estimated in planning documents, and what they think of the idea of bringing co-living clearly under RPZ laws.

Would it make a difference?

If people in co-living are tenants, or if co-living were to be put clearly under RPZ laws, would it make a difference to the initial rents?

That’s not entirely clear, says Elliott.

The initial rent in a new place has to be set in line with market rents, so on a par with similar properties. But in reality, that’s kind of whatever a landlord wants to charge, he says.

Renters and landlords can disagree over what are comparable properties. Ultimately, that would be for the RTB to decide.

RPZ laws would make it hard for a landlord to offer varying rates for different length stays, given that rents can only be reviewed once every 12 months, and can’t be generally increased more than 2 percent a year.

Elliott says he thinks that co-living should have been clearly brought under the RPZs at the time new proposals were banned. “It’s certainly something they should have done.”

In December 2020, O’Brien, the housing minister, banned new planning applications for co-living, citing among other issues, the high number of proposals and concerns about inflation of land prices with knock-on impacts on the viability of affordable housing projects.

Green Party Councillor Michal Pidgeon says there may be only a small number of co-living complexes built but they should be clearly brought under the same rental laws as other rentals.

You can end up with weird laws on the books, and outlier cases, in decades time otherwise, says Pidgeon.

You could end up with this smallish group of renters left behind, says Elliott. “A forgotten segment.”