Rent reforms: Coalition's big cure for rental market somewhat diluted by mixed messages
Story of the Week
The Government presented it as a coup, something that came as a surprise to the Opposition, that would remove any basis for attack.
For weeks, there were rumours that the rent pressure zones (RPZs) were about to come a cropper, and the Government was going to scrap, or seriously curtail their use, in a bid to attract big finance to reboot the construction of apartment blocks, which has been moribund for many months.
And yes, the news that the RPZs were being extended across the State did serve to blunt Opposition attacks. After all, has the Opposition not been calling for months to save them? And applying them everywhere made sense, given that 24 of the 31 councils, and 111 of the 166 local electoral areas, were already in RPZ zones.
Curbing the 'no-fault' notice to quit was also a smart move in heading off the Opposition.
READ MORE
It was the subsequent policy announcement that was to prove more tricky. The new distinction between small and corporate landlords. The fact that there will be different rules for new tenancies in the future, which will be set at market rate, with increases measured against inflation. The right of landlords to reset rent after six years.
Those new rules were designed to attract institutional investors back to the Irish market. They wish to have predictable returns on their investment, and it is clear that RPZ was a big impediment for at least some of those.
It's clear that the purpose of the change was to strike a balance between protecting the rights of tenants (already paying painfully high rent) and those of investors who are badly needed to to be part of the solution.
The policy, or the communication of it, was not thought through, however. When detailed questions were asked, there were conflicting and ambiguous answers coming from different Ministers.
Would existing tenants in RPZ be subject to that six-year rent review? It took a day for that to be clarified, with the Opposition claiming some hasty revision took place. Would announcing the start date of March 2026 encourage landlords to hold off renting properties and then benefit from higher rents from next year?
James Browne ended up taking some flak. He's not the world's best communicator but he's a doer. That said, it's going to take a long time before we know if this measure will make any difference.
Elsewhere, Stephen Collins is writing about the
tortuously slow pace of any development or project in Ireland
. He adjudges this to be a hard decision. Time will tell on that. But many more hard decisions need to be taken to bridge that yawning gap between supply and demand.
Bust up
The first item on the agenda of any Irish political party is the split. And the smaller and more marginal the party, the bigger the chasm.
Our colleague Ronan McGreevy brought us
this intriguing report this week about 30 activists leaving People Before Profit
because – wait for it – it had become too mainstream and establishment.
The walkout has been led by Dublin city councillor Madeleine Johansson. There was some jaw-dropping rhetoric in it. The 'fake democracy of the Dáil' should be replaced by a 32-county workers' republic.
'Assemblies of workers in workplaces and communities elect delegates, who are recallable, to a workers' national assembly.'
Wow.
To effect, one working-class revolution is required involving mass protests and strikes leading to workplace occupations and a challenge to the old State.
Democracy in action? Well, not quite.
One of the bases of the objection is that PBP would consider joining that bastion of the establishment, Sinn Féin, in Government.
To quote the statement, a Sinn Féin-led government would 'coalesce with the establishment and leave untouched the real government, the permanent government – the State bureaucracy, army chiefs and head Guards'.
That's what you call sweeping changes.
Not that Paul Murphy is overly concerned right now, having been detained in Egypt while on the Great March to Rafah.
That's all very well but does any of this affect me?
It happened so long ago, 36 years ago, in 1989, that it seems historical. But the circumstances of the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane by loyalist gunmen have suppurated like a wound for more than three decades.
Today's announcement by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, is a big moment. He confirmed the independent chair and assessors for the public inquiry into the murder of Mr Finucane.
And so it is important.
As Taoiseach Micheál Martin said in a statement: 'This is the final outstanding inquiry from those that were recommended by Judge Cory in 2004, and it is positive that it can now move to beginning its important and substantive work.
'Today's announcement highlights the importance that a way forward is found to comprehensively address all the outstanding cases of the Troubles.'
Banana skin
The National Shared Services Office (NSSO) is usually a backwater for news stories but on Tuesday all that changed when Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers held an unexpected media conference.
As Cormac McQuinn reported,
pension payment calculations for some Ministers, including current serving ones, might have been overstated, or understated,
up to the tune of €30,000.
It was also revealed that a pool of 13,000 retired civil servants who were on work-sharing arrangements are to have their pension deductions checked for underpayments.
There is also an issue in relation to the pensions of 30 retired senior civil servants. One of them could owe as much as €280,000 as a result of NSSO errors.
Now the Public Accounts Committee is taking an interest in it. This could get very sticky for the NSSO.
Winners and losers
Winner:
James Browne, for pushing through a hard political decision.
Loser:
James Browne, for failing to communicate clearly enough what it did and did not do.
The Big Read
Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones are examining in detail the background and the implications of this week's big RPZ announcement.
Ellen Coyne has an interview with a grieving mother who has serious questions for Children's Health Ireland.
And, of course, Miriam Lord's Saturday column.
Hear here
Friday's
Inside Politics podcast
looks at Minister for Housing James Browne's announcement of plans to change the rules around rent pressure zones (RPZs). Will the Government's gamble on investment pay off? And why was the roll-out so haphazard?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
Ireland will have to commit substantial funds to arms procurement whether it approves or not
All they talk about in Brussels these days is defence. And with a sense of urgency and common political will that is a product of real fear that the EU itself is existentially threatened . A fear that the threats from Russia to Ukraine – regarded, as one senior European Commission official put it, as a 'de facto member state' – and Vladimir Putin 's wider ambitions against former Soviet states now part of the union are serious. And that the US can no longer be relied on for military support or even nuclear deterrence. The talk is all of meeting new Nato targets of raising defence spending to between three and five per cent of GDP. Russia, member states are warned, has been massively expanding its military-industrial production capacity with an estimated spending in 2024 of 40 per cent of the federal budget and up to 9 per cent of its GDP (up from 6 per cent in 2023) on defence, a commitment only possible in an autocratic state impervious to public sentiment. Ireland, despite its new commitment to bolster its army, remains the poorest performer in the EU class at 0.5 per cent this year. Member states' defence spending has grown by more than 31 per cent since 2021, reaching 1.9 per cent of the EU's combined GDP or €326bn in 2024, almost double the amount spent in 2021. Not enough, however; now a target of €800 billion in the next few years is being discussed. A measure of how seriously the debate is being taken has been the union's willingness with unprecedented speed to raise its sacrosanct fiscal rules, allowing member states to break debt limits to expand their military spending . READ MORE The thrust is now being driven by the EU White Paper on Defence Preparedness 2025, published recently. It was the subject of a well-attended debate this week in the Institute for International and European Affairs, which turned inevitably to the issue of Ireland's own national preparedness and its role next year in steering the EU presidency discussions. Centre stage will be the roll-out of the white paper proposals to revitalise states' military capacity and transform national defence industries to break reliance on foreign, notably US, imported weapons. A new defence financing initiative, Safe, will see the European Investment Bank raise €150 billion to lend to the private sector on condition 65 per cent of loans are for European-produced weapons. Ireland is not planning to dip into the fund, but Minister of State for Defence Thomas Byrne told the meeting that, in the spirit of 'principles-based pragmatism', we might yet do so. Ireland will also have charge of brokering a deal on the next seven-year budget (the Multiannual Financial Framework, or MFF). The process always severely stretches member-state solidarity and will particularly test them this time, with a huge increase in collective defence spending being proposed. That, at a time when all are cash-strapped, will require a massive breach of the one per cent of EU GDP budget spending ceiling, or as Prof Brigid Laffan warned, 'tough trade-offs' on long-standing policy areas. Like agriculture. Ireland cannot stand on the sidelines. It will necessarily have to commit substantial funds to arms procurement as a net contributor to the MFF, like all others, whether or not it approves. [ Parlous state of Defence Forces once again laid bare Opens in new window ] The EU white paper bears a remarkable resemblance in its scope and thrust to the paper produced in Ireland in 2022 by the Commission on the Defence Forces and which prompted our own commitment to major upgrading of the Defence Forces. The white paper, the EU Commission's senior defence official, Guilaume de la Brosse, insists, is not about redefining EU defence policy 'but about the specificities of member states, serving national agendas', and both starting a discussion about preparedness and capabilities and pointing to a way in which the needs may be addressed more efficiently, collectively and individually. The white paper projects are all 'voluntary'. Like the Irish commission's silence on neutrality's merits, it is not saying European collective defence must take a particular form, but that if you want a capability to deter aggression then this is how to do it – and it is best done collectively, ensuring interoperability and as little duplication as possible. [ Poll shows Ireland's attachment to neutrality is strong but nuanced Opens in new window ] Critical to getting both imperatives through will be important changes in the nature of defence discussions throughout the EU – not least in Ireland, where the debate has largely been confined to political and policy circles. Both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have engaged strongly, echoing common EU-wide concerns, but public opinion remains largely indifferent, albeit clinging to vague, often contradictory notions of 'neutrality'. There is often an unwillingness to acknowledge the need to upgrade our defensive capacity or even a need for it. A fundamental challenge remains a public unwillingness to perceive real new vulnerabilities or threats to ourselves – like to our vital undersea cable networks or to cyber attacks, or threats to the territorial integrity of our European partners – as urgent and requiring radical action. Although sympathetic to their plight, and generously receptive of refugees, Irish voters have yet to recognise that their problem is our problem, a real threat to our union, and to develop a real sense of obligation to fellow members of the union arising from our membership of this huge 'peace project'. From a narrow national perspective, as Minister Byrne acknowledged, 'working together is the only way forward'. This debate urgently needs to expand beyond Dáil Éireann's narrow confines.
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
Irish universities earned more than €830m from student housing since 2015
Irish universities have made more than €830 million from student accommodation over the last 10 years. An analysis of the financial accounts for Ireland's main universities shows the income from student accommodation has nearly doubled since 2015 as third-level institutions have hiked fees and invested in new accommodation blocks. The analysis assessed accounts from University College Dublin (UCD), Trinity College Dublin, University of Limerick (UL), University of Galway, Dublin City University (DCU), Maynooth University and University College Cork (UCC). Universities made €117.6 million from student accommodation in 2023. In 2024, excluding DCU which has yet to publish its 2024 accounts, universities made €113.5 million from their residences. If DCU maintained the same level of income from its residences as in 2023, the figure would surpass €125 million. READ MORE UCD made the most from student accommodation during the 10-year period, bringing in €288.5 million. Ireland's largest university made €42.8 million in its financial year ending September 30th, 2024, slightly down from its record income of €43.98 million the year prior. The south Dublin college, which has accommodation at both of its campuses, made €20.15 million from residences in 2015. It has since significantly increased the number of student beds it offers. It had around 2,500 beds available to students in 2015, but expanded that to 4,070 by 2023 as part of its residential masterplan. UCD shelved plans to build 1,254 student apartments on its campus in 2022. The development was deemed no longer viable due to inflation in construction costs, The Irish Times reported. The project will be partially constructed due to funding from the State, which will allow 493 of those beds to be developed. At the same time, UCD has increased its on-campus rental fees on an annual basis, with costs at the university's Merville accommodation increasing from €6,358 in 2015 to €7,843 last September. Universities also point out that their accommodation is now being used as summer accommodation for tourists and international students. A spokesman for DCU said a significant portion of the revenue from its student residences is generated 'during the summer months, when undergraduate beds are not occupied, when we charge full commercial rates' to visiting students, academics and tourists. The full set of data is not available for DCU, which took in €12.45 million from its student accommodation in 2023. The north Dublin college is planning to add an additional 405 new beds with Government funding. UL has nearly 3,000 student beds across eight student villages on campus. In terms of finances, it takes in the second highest of any university from its student accommodation. Its consolidated accounts record UL as having taken in €23.5 million from its student accommodation in its 2024 financial year. In the past decade, it has generated close to €160 million from student accommodation. Trinity has recorded income in excess of €117 million from its student residences over the decade-long period. [ UL returns €12.4m surplus a year after soured property deals drag it into the red Opens in new window ] UCC's revenue from student accommodation stood at €12.8 million last year, with €81.6 million coming in the past decade. University of Galway recorded €14.5 million last September, from a total of nearly €74 million since 2015. Maynooth University recorded the lowest income of the universities in the 2023-24 financial year, at €6 million. This was also the case in the multi-year period, when it took in just over €47 million. Maynooth combined income from residences and catering in its 2015 and 2016 accounts. During the Covid-19 pandemic, university income from student accommodation was hit heavily. Across the board, revenue dropped nearly 30 per cent, from €93.7 million in 2019 to €67.4 million in 2020. Revenue fell further the next year, dropping to €54.6 million in 2021 before it rebounded to more than €100 million for the first time as university students returned to campus.
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
More smaller apartments and studios could be built under plans being considered by Government
Moves which could mean greater numbers of smaller apartments, including studio apartments, built are being considered by Government and are likely to be finalised in the coming weeks. The proposals, being discussed at the highest level of the Coalition, are among efforts to make building apartments more attractive for investors and developers in a bid to increase the supply in urban areas, according to several people familiar with the discussions. Rules governing size, insulation, requirements for dual aspect in many apartments, corridor lengths, high-spec finishes and the need to have balconies are all cited as reasons for runaway cost inflation in the price of apartments, and all are likely to be examined. [ Dublin studio flats 27% smaller than current limit get go-ahead Opens in new window ] There is agreement among senior Government figures that design standards for apartments have risen so high that they have driven costs of construction to a level that has made them unaffordable. READ MORE In addition, the mix of apartments required in developments is being discussed, with Government figures understood to favour allowing more and smaller apartments, including more studio apartments, and fewer large apartments. Government sources were adamant that things like energy ratings, disability access and fire safety would not be affected under any package of changes that could be agreed, but outlined a range of other apartment design stipulations which the industry has protested add cost to development. [ 'I grew up in an apartment in another country. I bought an apartment in Dublin and had to get out after a year' Opens in new window ] Sources stress that they are not talking about building standards – these are produced by technical experts in construction and cover things like fire safety. Instead, they are discussing possible changes in apartment standards, which are set by planners. 'We need to change the viability equation for them,' said a Coalition source. Will rent reform make building apartments viable? Listen | 40:12 Some Government officials say that while balconies in a one-bedroom apartment are a useful amenity, they can also drive up the cost of construction and contribute to affordability issues for first-time buyers, leaving them unable to access the housing market. Tánaiste Simon Harris previously signalled an openness to the idea of revisiting apartment design standards, and it is understood that he again indicated they would be considered during a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party last week, alongside plans to overhaul the remit of the Land Development Agency. [ Has Fingal County Council found a solution to our housing crisis? Opens in new window ] However, any move to revisit standards is likely to face some criticism. Orla Hegarty, assistant professor at the UCD School of Architecture, said that previous efforts to address affordability through changing design standards had proven unsuccessful. She said there was a risk of 'poorer quality housing for the very long term, for a very short-term balancing of the books'. It comes off the back of moves last week to overhaul the rental sector, including expanding rent pressure zones nationally, allowing more frequent resetting of rents, and improving some tenant protections.
