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 Insights, Guides & News
Property management trends, product updates, and industry analysis for housing professionals across Ireland and the UK.
Weekly articles
HAP & Cost Rental
AI in lettings
RTB & compliance
About the blog
Practical analysis for housing professionals in Ireland and the UK
Rentalize Insights is our editorial home for residential property in Ireland and the UK. We cover what matters to housing teams day to day, on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Topics include:
- HAP and Cost Rental policy changes
- Approved Housing Body and housing association delivery
- AI in lettings and tenant selection
- RTB compliance and Part V obligations in Ireland
- UK landlord obligations, from Making Tax Digital to client money rules
- Rent caps under the Residential Tenancies Acts
- Running a modern property portfolio
Articles are written by the Rentalize team. They are reviewed by housing professionals working with Local Authorities, AHBs, housing associations, property management companies, letting agents and private landlords across Ireland and the UK.
Who is it for? You will find practical guidance whether you:
- Work as a Local Authority housing officer assessing applications
- Manage a Cost Rental scheme at an AHB
- Run mixed tenure stock at a PMC or a UK housing association
- Let and manage property as an agent in Ireland or the UK
- Own a single rental property
Search by keyword, browse by category, or read the latest analysis. Popular topics include HAP eligibility, Cost Rental income limits, differential rent assessment, RTB registration, rent pressure zones, Making Tax Digital for UK landlords, and AI in tenant selection.
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...
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 6,000 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.