‘A total shambles' – renters will be the losers due to market reforms, Dáil told
TDs are this afternoon debating the Government's laws to designate the entire country a Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ), which will bring in rent caps to all properties.
This will cap rent increases per year at 2pc or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.
Most opposition parties are supporting the laws, having called previously for the entire country to be designated an RPZ, but they also are putting forward their own amendments.
Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said 'renters will be the losers' as a result of the changes.
He said the plans were 'total shambles', 'haphazard' and 'back of the envelope'.
'You're going to make things worse in the short term,' he told the Dáil.
He predicted there would be higher rents and no guarantee of increased supply.
Mr Ó Broin said the 'best case scenario', which is aimed at driving fund investment in apartments for rent, would 'modest levels' of investments from abroad.
His party colleague, Louise O'Reilly, told the Dáil how her father had attended the housing protest outside of Leinster House yesterday. She said he campaigned 56 years ago for better housing and that he had thought he would not have to still be doing so, five decades later.
Labour TD Conor Sheehan said the announcement of the rent reform plans was 'nothing short of shambolic'.
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'What was proposed last week nearly caused a run on the rental market,' he said.
He said it 'really shows how weak' the Government was.
Social Democrat TD Rory Hearne said the housing market didn't operate like any other market and it shouldn't be treated like it did.
'It's delusional thinking, it's market-like thinking that doesn't apply,' Mr Hearne told the Dáil.
He said people 'need a home and people will pay whatever they can' to get one.
'Relying on institutional investors to provide a key source of housing is absolutely a wrong measure.'
Junior housing minister Christopher O'Sullivan said the Government was bringing forward the laws quickly 'because renters need protection'.
He said linking rents to inflation would be 'an immediate and concrete protection against high rent inflation'.
'We want to provide certainty, clarity and stability for the rental sector. The new policy measures announced last week to apply from March 1 will boost supply of homes.'
He said laws would be brought forward later this year to give effect to the changes kicking in from March 1, which would include removing the 2pc rent cap from newly built apartments.
New tenancies created after this date will be able to be set at 'market value' but will have 'far greater' protections for renters.
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