Awaab’s Law phase 2: cold, heat, falls, fire and electrical hazards
Key takeaways Awaab's Law phase 1 came into force for social landlords on 27 October 2025, covering damp, mould and all emergency hazards. Phase...
INSIGHTS / PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
Property Management Insights for Ireland
Practical analysis for Irish property managers. We cover maintenance, arrears, BER compliance, RTB registration, and software selection. Written for PMCs, AHBs, and Local Authorities.
About this collection
Property management, written for Irish operators
This is the Rentalize Insights collection on property management. The articles cover the day-to-day work of running an Irish rental portfolio. Topics include rent collection, arrears recovery, and maintenance triage. We also cover contractor management, BER and minimum standards inspections, and tenant communications under GDPR. Every guide is written with Irish landlord and tenant law in mind.
Read the latest articles below. You can also jump to popular topics. These include RTB registration, the 2 percent national rent cap, and S.I. 137 minimum standards. We also cover open banking direct debit for rent, plus the move from spreadsheets to a full housing management system.
Looking for something broader? See the full Insights index for every topic we cover.
Popular searches:
HAP
Cost Rental
RTB registration
differential rent
rent pressure zone
Making Tax Digital
Four filings and a declaration: what an MTD year actually looks like
Key takeaways MTD replaces one annual return with four quarterly updates and a Final Declaration. The quarterly updates are summaries, not mini tax returns....
April 2027 and the 30,000 pound line: who gets caught in the next MTD wave
Key takeaways Making Tax Digital for Income Tax has applied since April 2026 to qualifying income above 50,000 pounds. From April 2027 the threshold...
Raising rent without Section 21: the Section 13 route in practice
Key takeaways With every tenancy now periodic, the Section 13 notice is the standard route to raising rent in England. It allows one increase...
Periodic by default: what changed in every tenancy agreement on 1 May 2026
Key takeaways On 1 May 2026 every assured shorthold tenancy in England became periodic. Fixed terms no longer exist. Section 21 was abolished on...
Agents can file it, landlords still own it: the PRS Database duty split
Key takeaways An agent can register a property on the PRS Database. The legal duty stays with the owner. That split means a landlord...
Not on the PRS Database: no Section 8, no listing, no HMO renewal
Key takeaways Civil penalties for failing to register start at EUR equivalent of 7,000 pounds and rise to 40,000 pounds for repeat breaches. An...
The PRS Database reaches your region: what to have ready before it does
Key takeaways The PRS Database is a national register of landlords and rented properties in England only, created by the Renters' Rights Act 2025....
CPI or 2 per cent: which limb binds this month, and why it moves
Key takeaways The Irish rent cap is the lower of 2 per cent or CPI inflation, applied once every 12 months. CPI has run...
Six years, one reset: what a Tenancy of Minimum Duration really commits you to
Key takeaways Every private tenancy created from 1 March 2026 is a Tenancy of Minimum Duration lasting 6 years. The end of each 6...
Four tenancies and everything changes: large versus small landlords in Ireland
Key takeaways Since 1 March 2026 Irish law distinguishes large landlords, meaning 4 or more tenancies, from small landlords. Any corporate entity is a...
Three comparables, three months: evidencing market rent from the RTB Rent Register
Key takeaways Setting rent at market rate now requires 3 comparable tenancies from the RTB Rent Register, attached to the notice as evidence. Each...
Frequently asked questions
What does property management cover for an Irish PMC?
A Property Management Company in Ireland handles a wide brief. Core duties are rent collection and RTB registration of every tenancy. Other duties cover S.I. 137 minimum standards inspections, BER compliance, and maintenance triage. PMCs also run contractor management, arrears recovery, and tenant communications under GDPR. Larger PMCs issue monthly owner statements and quarterly compliance reports.
Is RTB registration mandatory for every tenancy?
Yes. Every private, AHB, and Cost Rental tenancy must be registered with the Residential Tenancies Board. Registration is due within one month of the tenancy start. An annual update is required after that. A missed registration blocks the landlord from issuing valid notices of termination. Fines reach up to €4,000 per tenancy.
How does the 2 percent rent cap work in 2026?
Since 1 March 2026 a single national rent control applies to private tenancies in every county. Rent can rise by no more than the lower of CPI inflation or 2 percent a year, and a review can only be carried out once every 12 months. It replaced Rent Pressure Zones, which were extended nationwide on 20 June 2025 and abolished on 28 February 2026. The cap does not apply to local authority, AHB or cost rental tenancies, and qualifying new build apartments follow CPI only.
What are S.I. 137 minimum standards inspections?
S.I. 137 of 2019 sets the minimum standards for rented homes in Ireland. The rules cover structural soundness, sanitary facilities, and food preparation. They also cover heating, ventilation, fire safety, electrical safety, and gas safety. Local Authorities carry out the inspections. They can issue Improvement Notices when standards are not met. Most landlords run a pre-inspection each year and track remediation in a property management system.
When should a property manager move from spreadsheets to software?
The practical break point is around 25 to 30 units. Another trigger is when compliance reporting starts to slip. This covers RTB filings, BER renewals, and inspection records. A modern housing management system replaces ad hoc spreadsheets. It gives a single audit trail across tenancies, rent ledgers, maintenance, and documents. Most insurers and AHB funders now expect this standard.
What we cover
Social and affordable housing
Practical guides on HAP (Housing Assistance Payment), Cost Rental, Affordable Purchase, AHB delivery, differential rent calculation, Local Authority allocation policies, Part V obligations and the wider Housing for All programme. We track scheme rules across all 31 Local Authorities so allocations officers, AHB staff and tenancy managers can stay current. UK readers get the housing association equivalents where the rules differ.
AI and automation in lettings
How AI-driven tenant selection, fraud detection on applications, automated income verification and audit-ready scoring are changing the way Irish landlords let property. Coverage includes case studies (Rentalize Select has processed more than 200,000 applications with zero downtime, peaking at 4,600 in a single week), the GDPR considerations of automated decision making, and the LGMA, RTB and equality-of-access standards that frame any AI deployment in housing.
Property management software
Software selection guides, comparisons between Irish and UK-built systems, integration considerations (Revenue, Stripe, open banking, Land Registry, RTB), and what to look for when scaling from a handful of units to a thousand-plus portfolio. We benchmark on compliance fit, support quality, total cost of ownership and Ireland-specific feature depth.
Operational best practice
Maintenance scheduling, contractor management, rent collection (including Rentalize Pay open-banking direct debit), arrears workflows, BER and minimum standards inspections, GDPR-compliant tenant communications, dispute prevention and resolution at the Residential Tenancies Board, and the everyday operational habits that separate well-run portfolios from problem ones.
Policy and regulation
Plain-language summaries of the Residential Tenancies Acts, the 2026 national rent cap, RTB registration and dispute procedure, Minimum Standards Regulations, Fire Safety obligations, and the periodic policy changes from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Sources are linked back to legislation.ie and gov.ie wherever possible. For the UK we cover the equivalent duties: Making Tax Digital for landlords, client money protection, deposit protection schemes, EPC and safety obligations, and the rules housing associations work to.
Product and company updates
Release notes and feature announcements for Rentalize Select, Core and 360, alongside customer stories from Local Authorities, Approved Housing Bodies, Property Management Companies and private landlords. If you want to know what shipped, what is in the pipeline, and what live customers are doing with it, this is where we publish.