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HOUSING EXPERTS HAVE said that rent control laws are not working after rents nationwide rose by almost 12% in the year to March.
The latest Daft quarterly rental report found that the average monthly rent for properties listed on its website was €1,261.
This marks a monthly increase of €232 compared to a previous peak a decade ago in 2008.
The latest report marks the eighth consecutive quarter in which annual inflation in rents has surpassed 10% as well as the eighth consecutive quarter that a new record has been set.
Rents are still by far at their highest in Dublin, with the average rents in the capital at €1,875 in March – a 12.4% raise year-on-year.
The consistent rises in rents, and dwindling supply of rental stock, has prompted experts to question whether current rent control laws are working.
“If there are too many people chasing too few goods the rent goes up. And that’s what’s happening at the moment,” economist Ronan Lyons told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland yesterday.
“And it seems the Rent Pressure Zones are not working and are probably not working for the reason related to that.
Can you really see a tenant, a prospective tenant, saying to a landlord, ‘I’ll take your home but if and only if you prove to me the rent is no more than 4% what it was last year?’
Rent Pressure Zones
Rent Pressure Zone laws were first introduced in December 2016 by then-Housing Minister Simon Coveney to tackle spiralling rents.
Under the legislation, annual rent rises were capped at 4% in certain areas.
The criteria for an area to become a Rent Pressure Zone was monitored by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).
Basically, an area had to have annual rent increases of over 7% or more in four of the previous six quarters and the rent levels had to already be above the national average.
All of Dublin and Cork city were the first places to be designated as RPZs, with many other areas following over the past 18 months.
Today, 21 local electoral areas in Ireland are designated as RPZs, with others due to follow as rents continue to rise.
The introduction of RPZs was met with a mixed response – with some groups saying that the 4% limit didn’t go far enough in protecting tenants.
Meanwhile, landlord advocates have insisted that rent controls were harmful in the long run – by causing property owners to leave the market.
“When will justice be afforded to the providers of rented accommodation?” said Irish Property Owners Association chairman Stephen Faughnan on the release of the latest figures.
“Property owners are leaving the sector in their droves.
40,000 have already made their exit – more to follow. It does not appear to matter to politicians.
Flouting the laws
However, from the point of view of tenant advocacy charities, one criticism levelled at the rent control laws is that there are too many loopholes in them that landlords are able to exploit.
Housing charity Threshold has said repeatedly that landlords are flouting the laws and raising rents far more than the 4% allowed limit.
“It isn’t legal for a landlord to evict a tenant and then look for a very substantial rise afterwards,” Threshold CEO John-Mark McCafferty told TheJournal.ie last year.
“We’re hearing that people who want to rent and go to rent either don’t know for sure whether the rent is correct and they can’t challenge it until after the fact.
And there will always be someone at the viewing who is able to pay a higher level because of how few properties are available.
Under the current laws, a landlord can evict a tenant and raise the rent above the limits if substantial refurbishment is carried out on the property.
There have been multiple warnings and anecdotal reports that landlords are using this clause to evict tenants, carry out minor refurbishments and then charging new tenants significantly higher rents.
The flouting of rental laws by landlords, as well as the fact that the market is weighted heavily for demand rather than supply, has led housing advocates and opposition politicians to state that Rent Pressure Zone legislation is not working as it should be in tackling rising rents.
Solutions
Housing experts, economists, charity officials and the government itself have all said that the main thing needed to combat Ireland’s rising rents is an increased supply of properties in the private rental sector.
The Housing Department has insisted it is significantly ramping up housing construction, but that it will take time before the results begin to be felt in the market.
Until then, a number of measures have been identified that could help the situation in the interim.
Threshold has said that a publicly searchable index of the rents charged by landlords on a property-by-property basis would help to ensure that landlords can’t raise rents significantly when taking in new tenants.
This was also put forward as a possible solution by Ronan Lyons.
“The RTB do have… the individual rents for particular properties but they don’t publish them,” he said.
That would at least give tenants some more market power.
An RTB spokesperson said that it could not publish rental data at an individual address level in order to “protect people’s personal data”.
“The Cabinet has approved Heads of Bill which will bring forward legislation in relation to a number of matters which will help compliancy with the RPZs,” the spokesperson said.
“This includes a proposal to allow the RTB to publish more detailed rental information.
The RTB will also be empowered to investigate potential breach or contraventions of RPZ rules.
Tenants who are concerned that their rent has not been set in accordance with RPZ legislation are encouraged to contact the RTB and to refer a dispute to us in these cases.
New measures
Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy last month announced a raft of proposed new measures that would form part of the new Residential Tenancies Bill.
Among these is a planned law making it a criminal offence for landlords with properties in RPZs to raise the rent above the legally allowed 4%.
“What we’re bringing now is a sanctions regime making it a criminal offence, that we’ll follow with a number of measures that will be allowed to be implemented by the RTB (Residential Tenancies Board) including fines,” Murphy told reporters at the time.
He said at the moment the fine being considered would be in the region of €15,000.
The Housing Department said in a statement that RTB’s Rent Index report is expected in June and that it provides more accurate data than the Daft report.
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what they should of tackled was gangs of teenagers carrying knives and killing each other and shown that around schools something thats true to society instead of work of fiction
@kaidon sharkey: what’s wrong with works of fiction of of a sudden?
@Dermot Blaine: Read his comment again and again, until you understand it, my friend
@Dermot Blaine: nothing….i like fiction esp sci fi….but if everyone is harping on about…oh this should be on in schools….but its only fiction…as my point they should of tackled reality about teenage gangs and the knife culture of stabbing each other would hit home more
@Dermot Blaine: Sure what did Shakespear ever teach us about anything?
@kaidon sharkey: Could, perhaps, one of the reasons for violent knife crime be rooted in some of the online stuff that happens?
@ecrowley ecrowley: like what
@kaidon sharkey: cos adolescents are not equipped to deal with the stuff they see online. They’re not equipped to see through some of the well known charlatans that are prominent.
@ecrowley ecrowley: ive been playing gta since the 90’s ive never went out and ran over somebody…watched horrors since i was a young a young fella and never killed anyone…the mediums may have changed but not everyone is going to go out and do what ever an advertiser says online dont like the term influencer…now there does be one or two that does go out and do all that but thats an amonolly…the majority is gangs and turf wars that there is more killings over that then what some one says online
What fluffy malarkey…… I raised my sons to be the best they could be, respect for everyone, ignore skin colour, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, political leanings or soccer team affiliation. I don’t need any netflix hyped fiction to ‘ enlighten ‘ me thanks
@Buster Lawless: well said!
@Buster Lawless: how can you raise your children to have respect for others when you don’t show respect yourself…you were banned on here last year after you were reported several times for horrible things you said…so leave it out with the fake outrage.
@Clare Power: with all due respect ma’am I’ve never been ‘banned’from anything, lest of all an open comments board intended for meaningful discussion, informative debate & very valid/ educational viewpoints
@Buster Lawless: oh please..pull the other one Ken..
@Clare Power: yesterday I was kevvy, generally you go for brendan……. I like this one ..ken……I’ll take that cheers
@Buster Lawless: every single comment made on this platform is kept…please show me where I called you brendan or kev…I’ll wait…oh no you can’t because I didn’t but you are the lovely Mary also…
@Buster Lawless: “I don’t need any netflix hyped fiction to ‘ enlighten ‘ me thanks” woah that’s some ultra triggered s41t. It’s not all about you buddy.
@Buster Lawless: more lies from the troll Buster!! You should watch this program as it helps showcase the masculine toxicity taking over society.
@Lance Taylor: Buster is a very precious ego centric. He couldn’t handle it. Conspiracy theories are more soothing.
@Buster Lawless: Ignoring isn’t helpful. Unfortunately, the “I don’t see color” comment often times just shuts down conversation. It’s a subtle message to the group that “seeing race” is a bad thing; therefore, there shouldn’t be discussion about it. “I don’t see color is the get out of talking or doing anything about racism card that ‘good white people’ carry in their wallet. The same goes for sexual orientation.
@Louis Jacob: he has cloned my profile before and spouts unbelievable lies. Reported many times.
@Jack Burton: Perhaps the most obvious way to interpret the “I don’t see color” comment is one of self-congratulation. Indeed, they’re making it known that they’re not a “racist” white person. They are in fact a “good” white person and as a “good” white person, they are so non-racist that they don’t even have the ability to notice race. It’s incredibly insulting to be informed that an aspect of people’s identity will be treated as ‘unseen’ and ‘erasable.’
@Buster Lawless:You guys are so out there man. You support Musk who’s been using his 2 year old as a prop and a defence, in full view of the world, as he turns himself into a super villain, or Putin who conscripts 15 year old Cossack boys and sends them off to hell, never to be seen again… but this guy does a perfectly normal thing with his son where they address a few basic principals before the boy becomes a man and you have the pearls clutched like old bats. So f%*king weird man.
@Jack Burton: “I don’t even notice/see colour” can be like you say and serve as a virtue signal but I believe if one connects to all as kindred then another meaning for this declaration develops where the innate humanity is what is always noticed first. Without question most people could identify white/non white after just a cursory glance but before that glance there is a connection. Some people who say “I don’t see colour” really mean “I don’t see colour until after I’ve connected with a human like myself”
@Buster Lawless: it’s an opinion piece! And after reading your reply I think that you’re the very 1 who needs to watch it!
Unfortunately lots of kids who are now 4, 7 or 10 years age in some Dublin hoods inherit their fathers behaviour with toxic silly macho masculinity, silly and shinny shoes or clothing, hate for people who look different than ones in their small world etc.
@Chris: my goodness what a complete and utter snob….your prejudice shining through and yet you probably think for some reason you’re morally superior….what an utter shameful and horrible post!
@Chris: toxic macho four year olds? We really do need that digital ID asap. Hopefully that’ll put a stop to those haters
@Darth O’Leary: do you think that there are no toxic macho 4 year old in the city?
@Darth O’Leary: you, as far as I can see, you are the only hater on here, and you always get ridiculed
An interesting, honest article. Fair play.
Adolescence is a load of toss.
We have always had psychos in our midst.
@Fergus O’Donnell: it similar to the fuss caused when the film thirteen came out in 2003.
UK based drama, we are not the UK. Disrespect in the school told me everything I needed to know
I try to keep my son safe from this toxic series. Life is full of vicious and vile people, why do I need to force this upon him and get him to question himself at a young age. The soy latte generation want to break childhood and teenage boys with their reasons and sow doubht and fear into them, to effectively then control then with Their extreme leftist view of the world. Today, my son and I happily travelled across Northern Ireland to play chess with other players his age. All perfectly balanced from all segments of society and races. Sitting down to play chess, challenge themselves and grow in mind and spirut and for the love of the game. It’s pure. Not sitting him down in front of violence on the TV. Wake up people, let them have innocence.
Nobody understands the hardships of being on dialysis
Watch the anti Catholic comments shoot up now
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