Rent Pressure Zones extended across entire country & new rules for rising rents
Rent Pressure Zones will be extended across the entire country under plans agreed by the Government leaders and the Housing Minister James Browne.
The Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) will be discussed by Cabinet on Tuesday and is set to cause significant political backlash.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris, Housing Minister James Browne and senior Ministers met in Government Buildings to discuss the plans on Monday evening.
Rent caps of 2% will stay in place for existing dwellings. RPZ legislation will now apply across the entire country.
There will be no caps on new build apartments, as part of a Government push to increase the supply of apartments being built. It is expected this will be linked to inflation rather than capped.
It is expected that a new tenancy rule will be implemented, along with a restriction on no-fault evictions.
After this period, believed to be six years, the rent can be increased to match market rates.
In a major change, landlords will also be allowed to increase the rents between tenancies.
However, landlords will only be able to reset a rent if their tenant voluntarily leaves. Where a notice to quit is served on a tenant, the landlord can't reset the rent, seeking to remove any economic incentive for landlords to evict their tenants.
Minister Browne will also categorise landlords according to the number of properties owned.
Currently, all landlords are treated the same regardless of how many properties they own. Smaller landlords will now be categorised, it is understood, as having three properties or fewer.
The Irish Mirror understands that additional protections will be put in place for tenants. This will include limiting the situations in which a person can be evicted from a property.
For smaller landlords, tenants can be told to leave the property if it is being sold or if family is moving in. However, the Irish Mirror understands that the list of eligible family members could be tightened.
For larger landlords, they will be allowed to remove tenants if they break contractual agreements only.
Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) legislation was introduced in 2016. It limited the amount by which rents in RPZs could be increased to 2 per cent or the level of inflation, whichever is less. The legislation is due to lapse at the end of this year.
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