O’SULLIVAN CONCERN AT LATEST DAFT RENTAL REPORT

Labour spokesperson on Housing, Jan O’Sullivan TD, has expressed concern at the latest figures from Daft.ie, which show the largest yearly increases in rents across the country since 2002.

According to the property website, rents were up by an average of 13.5 per cent to December 2016, compared to the same time the previous year.

Commenting on the report, Deputy O’Sullivan said:

“While it may not be dominating the headlines at the moment, this latest report from Daft.ie shows the rental crisis is actually worsening, with rents rising at their fastest rate on record. This is clearly putting huge pressure on those who are trying to pay these increases on limited incomes, with little or no chance of buying a home in the foreseeable future.

“The figures also demonstrate that the Government should have been more radical in its limited measures on the rental sector before Christmas, particularly with areas like Limerick and Waterford being excluded from the rent pressure zones. That’s despite rent hikes of 12.5 and 10.7 per cent in those cities respectively, as well as increases reported in the Dublin commuter belt. Minister Coveney now needs to immediately consider including all these areas in the pressure zones, to alleviate the strain on renters.

“As I argued at the end of last year, the Government missed an opportunity at the time to provide this relief by choosing not to link rent increases to the Consumer Price Index- something we in the Labour Party pushed for in Government, and included in our Social and Affordable Housing Bill last year.

“We are also clearly seeing a continued issue with supply, with the figures in the Daft report showing around 4,000 properties were available to rent nationwide at the start of this month. That compares to 12,000 rental properties on the market in 2012. Minister Coveney has made a lot of announcements on this issue, but so far, there has been little delivery.”