What are the planned changes to Ireland's rental market and how will they affect tenants?
Huge changes to Ireland's rental market beckon under Government reforms aimed at boosting private investment to
build more housing
– while at the same time strengthening tenant protections. Opposition parties have attacked the plans saying rents will continue to increase. The Government ultimately hopes if more investors can be attracted to deliver more homes, rents will fall in years to come. So what are the changes and what do they mean for current and future renters?
Q: What did the Government announce?
A:
There is to be a new system of rent controls to cover the entire country, including the almost one-fifth of renters who live outside the existing
Rent Pressure Zones
(RPZ). Under the new national rent control system – to fully kick in from March 2026 – rent increases for tenancies would be capped in most cases by inflation or a maximum cap of 2 per cent similar to the current RPZ system. There is an exception. Rent control for new apartment blocks would be tied to inflation even when this exceeds 2 per cent as part of efforts to encourage their construction.
Q: What new protections will be in place for renters?
A:
There will be the ending of 'no-fault evictions' for tenants whose landlords own four or more properties. Smaller landlords will still be able to evict tenants in limited circumstances like a close family member needing the property or if they are in financial difficulty. The Government says that legislation to bring the changes in will also further enhance the current provision of tenancies of unlimited duration with the introduction of rolling tenancies of a minimum of six years. After March next year landlords will be allowed to reset rent to the market rate unless a no-fault eviction occurs when a new tenant moves in or after six years. It will remain prohibited to set a rent above market rent.
Q: So what does this mean for current renters? Will their landlord be able to reset rent while they live in the property?
A:
No. According to the Department of Housing 'resetting rules will not apply to existing tenancies'. So the current rules will still be in force indefinitely provided the current tenant does not leave the property. In the case of people living in RPZs that means annual increases capped at up to 2 per cent.
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Q: What about tenants living outside current RPZs?
A:
There is currently no such cap for people living outside RPZs where the rule is that landlords cannot charge more than the market rate of rent. However, the Government intends to bring forward legislation within weeks to ensure renters living outside RPZs will be covered by the same protections before next March.
Q. Is there a risk of landlords rushing through price hikes before the legislation is introduced?
Yes, in some cases. Rents outside RPZs can be reviewed every two years and landlords are allowed to use them to increase rent to the market rate. Some tenants may face a rent review if the two-year anniversary, since the rent was last reviewed, falls before the necessary legislation to extend RPZs is passed.
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Opinion: This is a housing strategy written by Flann O'Brien
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]
Q: How does this affect students and others who live in rental properties for shorter periods?
A:
Sinn Féin has raised concern that students will be impacted by rent increases as they seek accommodation limited to the duration of a college year starting each September. The fear is landlords will hike the prices by using the reset option every year once the student leaves and the property becomes vacant the following summer. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has separately raised concern that the changes could affect trainee doctors who are required to frequently relocate throughout their training. The IHCA 'believes the proposal to allow landlords to reset rents at market price for new leases could have the unintended consequence of making accommodation even more inaccessible for frontline medical staff'.
On these issues the Department of Housing said that current RPZ restrictions apply to student accommodation and it is 'the intention to continue restricting rent increases in the [student specific accommodation] sector.' It said Minister for Housing James Browne is 'actively engaging' with colleagues 'as part of the drafting of legislation on the tailored arrangements to apply to Student Specific Accommodation'.
Q: So when will housing supply ramp up as a result of the reforms, and when will rents start to fall?
A:
Minister for Housing James Browne says the reforms are among a series of measures he is bringing in as part of efforts to increase housing supply in the coming years. But he could not say when there will be a decrease in the current sky-high levels of rent. 'I expect rents to fall over time. What that particular length of time is I wouldn't be able to predict,' he said on Tuesday.
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