Rent changes will drive rents higher and push families to the brink
Rent changes will drive rents higher and push families to the brink - The Labour Party
- Rental changes take effect today as rents already sit 34% above pre-Covid levels
- Labour calls for emergency rent brake when national rents rise by 10%
Labour housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan TD has warned that rental changes coming into force today, March 1st, will push rents even higher and deepen the housing emergency. As new rules take effect, Deputy Sheehan said Government must urgently amend the legislation to introduce a rent brake that would trigger an emergency freeze if rents rise nationally by 10%.
Deputy Sheehan said:
“Today’s changes come at a time when renters already face punishing costs. Just this week the latest Daft report laid bare the scale of the crisis. Rents have risen by 4.4 percent in a single year. They now sit 34% above pre Covid levels. The average cost of a two bedroom apartment stands at €2086 a month. That is not balanced. That is a market that is broken.
“The Tánaiste insists these changes strike a balance between the rights of landlords and tenants. But balanced for whom? Workers, students and families already hand over a huge share of their income simply to keep a roof over their heads. They do not have another 25 percent to give.
“This week we heard IRES REIT tell shareholders that the new environment offers the potential for a 25% uplift. They said the quiet part out loud.
“Last June, Minister Browne said rents in this country are way too high, with this bill, he will subject renters to double digit rent inflation.
“This has been done to facilitate institutional investors who know they will get higher returns as their stock trades at a 52 week high. A 25 percent increase is completely unmanageable for ordinary renters.
“The Tánaiste tried to deny this on Thursday in the Dáil, yet the market response tells a very different story. Renters will rightly ask who this system is designed to serve.
“It is not too late for Government to mitigate the worst excesses of these changes. We need a rent brake written into law. If rents rise nationally by 10 percent, an emergency rent freeze must automatically come into effect. That would give renters at least some certainty and send a clear signal that the State will not allow people to be pushed into homelessness by insane rent increases.
“Labour would take a very different approach. We would transform the Land Development Agency into a State construction company with the power to plan, build and deliver homes at scale. We would reform and expand State backed cost rental so that thousands more renters can access secure homes at below market rents. We would develop new financing models for small and medium sized builders through State backed equity partnerships to unlock sites that currently lie idle. We would establish a State backed investment scheme to fund apartment construction, ringfenced for social and affordable housing, so that public investment serves the public good rather than private speculation.
“Renters cannot endure double digit pressure while Government congratulates itself on so called balance. Ministers must amend this legislation now, introduce a rent brake and back it with a serious public building programme. The housing system should work for the people who live in it. It is time to freeze soaring rents and build the homes that Ireland needs.”