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GE2024rentersLABOUR OR SOCIAL Democrats? Which party is promising a three-year rent freeze, a ban on no-fault evictions and a clearer, more transparent rental market?
It’s both of them, actually.
Both parties were out in Dublin city centre today to announced their plans to provide renters with better rights in the wake of a damning report from Daft.ie.
Average rents are dramatically increasing all over the country and, with a dwindling supply, the expected price to pay for a property is almost €2,000 per month, according to today’s Rental Price Report.
Both parties said because the government has failed to get the private rental market under control, State intervention is needed.
Speaking to reports outside the building of real estate investor Kennedy Wilson, Social Democrats candidate for Dublin North-Central Rory Hearne said some institutional investors are taking part in “profit gouging” and that those rents are unfair.
Hearne, who is a lecturer in housing policy at Maynooth University, said many institutional investors see Ireland as a good place to do business and that the Social Democrats want them to invest in affordable housing instead.
Sinn Féin has also proposed a three-year rent freeze and a ban on no-fault evictions.
When it comes to how to regulate institutional investors in the housing market, Labour and the Social Democrats differ.
The Social Democrats are proposing an all-out ban on the bulk purchase of existing homes, claiming that the practice “locks out” first-time buyers. Hearne said the party also wants to increase the level of tax that the firms also pay on their rental income.
Meanwhile, Labour is proposing an increase on the stamp duty for the bulk-purchase of houses or apartments.
Labour’s Dublin South-Central candidate Darragh Moriarty said more landlords need to respect renters’ rights: “On [RTÉ] the other night, Paschal Donohoe said we need more landlords - I don’t disagree with that but we don’t need slumlords.
“We have to stop slumlords for being able to ride roughshod all over renters’ rights. And that’s why we think strong renters’ protection has to be front and center of any next government, whether we’re in it or not,” he added.
Both parties are promising to reinstate the no-fault eviction ban and try to incentivise the increase usage of the tenant-in-situ scheme, so that a resident can remain in the property while it is being sold to a new owner or the local authority.
Hearne said: “An introduction of a no-fault ban on evictions would mean that, as a renter, if you’re paying your rent, if you’re doing nothing wrong, you can stay in that home, and a landlord cannot evict you.
“This is a common measure across Europe, and we should meet our European countries and introduce this protection for renters.”
Both parties agree that the answer to the problem of high rents is in building up supply and Labour and the Social Democrats are promising to build 30,000 and 25,000 affordable homes over five years, respectively.
But controlling skyrocketing rents by disallowing increases and making the rental market more transparent in the short term must also be completed. Moriarty said that the sector needs to be professionalised.
“If you have a relationship with a tenant, it is a professional relationship and we need to have the standards professionalised,” Moriarty told journalists.
Moriarty said that the professionalisation of a tenant-landlord relationship will be further complemented by Labour’s new idea to introduce a Rent Register – which will detail the previous costs of leasing a property for better transparency.
The Social Democrats, similarly, propose a ‘Reference Rent’ system – where the price of properties in the same area and of the similar size and quality are publically listed on a database that pegs rent to the baseline price.
Both parties are also proposing tougher regulations on short-term lets.
The Social Democrats says this can be done by empowering local authorities to enforce planning rules while Labour wants tourist levies and a separate property register for holiday homes, under the control of Fáilte Ireland.
Today’s Daft.ie Rent Price Report found that the average rent around Ireland now stands at €1955 per month and that there is an urgent need to address the lack of supply in the private market.
Ronan Lyons, author of the report and an economist at Trinity College, said the government’s attention has been focused on owner-occupied homes and social housing and that the upswing in construction of rental accommodation in Dublin is “over”.
He said, if not addressed urgently, construction trends in the rest of Ireland are likely to mirror Dublin.
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Heartbreaking. Is that the best that the USA can do, with its huge resources. So many live in abject poverty.
They’d sooner spend their billions on other children from far flung areas of the globe turning them into orphans and refugees. If they don’t care about their own children own whey would they care about anyone elses.
Kid needs to check his privilege.
Congrats to the boy
Poor little boy hasn’t had a great start in life, so many more out there like him, contrast this and the story about little Prince George and it’s just such a shame how one little boy has it all while another little boy has nothing!, hardly seems fair, hope his future is brighter!
Good luck to them all. Tis hard to be a child growing up without a proper home. Hopefully they can make it through.
And people give out about having to stay in hotels
Wow. Poor little guy. And sometimes we have a cheek to complain about silly things
Land of the Brave, Home of the Free. If you can cut it in the rat-race, never get ill, never get tired, never make a mistake. Given this country’s adoration of all things American, look out for a similar story in a venue near you – sooner rather than later.
Has already happened, SDCC evicted a 17 year old girl from her family home on Wednesday morning after the passing of her mother last year. They wouldn’t even let the poor child back in to get her mothers ashes and left her curled up in a ball, in her pyjamas, on the doorstep heartbroken. They told her she wasn’t their concern….. an orphaned 17 year old should be everyones concern.
Ann…i didnt hear about this..tell us more?
Please share more information on this story. Those responsible need to be called to account for their despicable behaviour. We can’t do that with sufficient information.
Scroll down their page – the media is too busying with other stuff!
https://www.facebook.com/Cairdeas-Homeless-Action-Group-768034629939704/?fref=photo
The girl wasn’t actually living in the house ..
You seem to know more than I do Suzie – do you know what the story behind it is? I searched the other night when I came across the post but could find nothing more about it. But the fact remains regardless of whether or not she was living there, her mothers ashes need to be returned to her.
Ann , the young girl is living wuth her grandmother and they were corresponding with her at all times , she knew it was happening so I would say she had her belongings in her grandmother’s house .
When this young ladies mother was alive she used to spend a couple of nights a week in her grannies and the rest of the time at home with her mother. When her mother got sick she stayed with her all of the time. Before her mother passed her gran was diagnosed with a terminal illness and when her mam died she stayed with her granny to look after her while she was sick (and lets not forget this young girl has school and doing her leaving cert). Her grandmother is now dying and in the hospice. In February the council wrote to her and told her that because she was a minor they could not leave her in the house and that as it was a 3 bedroom house it was needed for a family. So it will probably be back to square one when her granny passes.
Free to live in abject poverty. God bless America. It bloody-well needs it.
Contemporary sociologists have a nice cuddly descriptive term for this type of non traditional family unit – “a blended family”. Its essential…mandatory even,to be non judgemental about such social constructs so i will say only…well done.
You know the sad thing about this.
In a decades time some angry feminist or rights group activist will accuse him of having had a privilieged white male existence.
And social media will believe them.
Ireland 5 to 10 years on ?
Land of the free, home of the brave. Shocking how those in most need are let down by society.
For the love of God tell me if I can donate to this family. I don’t have much but I will send what I have. I can’t comprehend what these people have been through. Is this America?
Yeah.
Obama’s America.
Democrat’s America.
thejournal.ie you are way to PC with what people want to say, shame on you.
Ah god she left the buying of his birthday cake til the middle of his birthday party. …..that’s a bit odd
If only the Patriarchy would come to this guy’s rescue
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