Rent pressure zones and renter protection
Deputy Bacik highlighted ESRI findings that new tenants pay significantly higher rents and criticised the lack of stronger renter protections. The Minister defended the original rent pressure zone policy, said extending it to all properties would not have solved the issue, and left further recommendations to the Housing Minister.
As the Dáil resumes today, the same issue continues to dominate for so many communities across the country and that is the issue of housing.
The lack of rights for renters is particularly in focus today in an ESRI report showing significantly higher rents being paid by new tenants compared with what is paid by existing renters. We are told a renter moving into a new home can expect to pay 15% more than someone already renting a similar home. As a former Minister with responsibility for housing, how can the Minister justify the lack of Government action on protection for renters? At a minimum, today's report shows renters must be empowered and provided with information about their homes so they can know their rights. If the Government had supported the Labour Party's renters' rights Bill back in 2021 we would have a rent register in place, along with other measures to protect tenants, protect renters and give greater security. Will the Government support our Bill to introduce a rent register and will it consider making the whole country a rent pressure zone? That is clearly what is needed, as we can see from this report.
Comment on this
Making the whole country a rent pressure zone would not have addressed the issue raised in the report.
Comment on this
The report states properties that are new to the rental market are not covered by rent pressure zone restrictions versus properties that are currently in the rental market. I was the one who introduced rent pressure zones as Minister. It was the first time any Minister introduced-----
Comment on this
-----effectively rent price caps, or at least limitations in terms of inflation. We made a decision at the time, on advice, that we should not apply that cap to new properties coming on to the market because we wanted to see more new properties coming into the rental market, which we still need. This is obviously something the Government needs to keep a close eye on and it is for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to make recommendations in that regard.