By Enda Kelly
The Government has made great stock out of the new rental regulations, and they are trying to ram them through as quickly as possible. If you believe the media reporting around this, it seems that these new regulations are a real victory for renters. However, this is essentially spin that fundamentally is just another example of this Government throwing renters and young people to the wolves. Under this bill, Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) – where rent increases are capped at 2% – will now cover the entire country, expanding to 19% of the country that wasn’t covered by it.
More rent hikes and evictions
However, this is only part of the story. Changes to RPZs mean this cap will not apply to new builds, or if a tenant voluntarily leaves their current tenancy after 1 March 2026. In such cases, the landlord can hike up the rent to the rate of inflation. It was pointed out to the housing minister that this will disproportionately affect students. They leave their tenancies every year once the college year is finished, but he has refused to offer students any additional specific protections.
Also, tenancies of indefinite duration remain, but after six years, the rents involved can be hiked up to the rate of inflation. Small landlords (those with three properties or fewer) will be able to evict tenants if they are looking to sell their property, carry out significant renovations, face financial difficulties, or need to use it to accommodate a family member. Large landlords (those with four or more) cannot evict tenants if they have kept up with their obligations. The logic behind this is that it will stimulate private investment in property. This is despite the Government stating that any change in terms of supply will take years to come about, and in the meantime, rents will increase.
A landlord’s government
To be clear, the RPZs were far from perfect and did not stop landlords from jacking up rents. Average rent in Ireland topped €2,000 for the first time in the first quarter of the year, but the ERSI found it to have kept rents lower than they would have been without them. The logic the Government has stated around this argument is the usual nonsense: we need private investment to increase supply and to stop landlords leaving the system. However, the number of landlords increased by 5.7% last year. Large landlords in Dublin in February this year now have 26% of the rental market.
Last year, the Government missed its social housing construction targets by 1,429 (20%). There are 2,749 vacant council properties, 163,000 vacant properties, and a record budget surplus, yet nothing is being done. The resources are there; the state just isn’t interested in solving the problem. Thus, these rental reforms are a landlord reform from a landlord government.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s market extremism has utterly failed. We must demand a complete end to no-fault evictions, real rent controls, and an emergency programme to build social and affordable housing. To accomplish this, private developers and vulture funds cannot be relied on – we need to take the big construction companies into state hands, forming a state construction company with a laser-like focus on home-building, for need not profit.
