‘CRAZY’ RENT HIKE

New owners seek to raise rents by over 20%

Tenants at a Cavan apartment complex, which houses a large number of frontline hospital workers, have had their rents increased by more than fifth after the property was sold to an investment fund earlier this summer.

The 58 apartments within Farnham Court were listed back in July for auction by BidX1 for €4.5 million, or an average of €77,586 per unit. They sold in September for almost a full million euros more (€5.4m) to Steinfort Investments, a sub-fund of Consdorf Investments ICAV.

Residents of Farnham Court have since been informed by letter that they can expect to pay as much as €800 per month for a one-bed apartment going forward and €970 for a two-bed property, to include utilities such as heat, parking and maintenance.

It’s understood the last rent review was in May 2019.

But the hike in rents has been branded as “crazy” by Sinn Féin’s Pauline Tully, whose party earlier this year strongly opposed a controversial amendment to continue to allow investment funds side-step a 10% stamp duty if leasing back houses to the State for social housing.

The previous month, the government introduced a new 10% rate of stamp duty on bulk purchases of 10 homes or more to fend off so-called cuckoo funds from snapping up housing developments from first-time buyers.

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