Rent pressure zone extension signed into law

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Rent pressure zones have been extended nationwide following the signing of emergency legislation into law by President Michael D Higgins.

The system, which caps rent increases at the rate of inflation or 2 per cent, whichever is lower, have also been extended until the end of February after originally being due to expire at the end of the year.

If no action had been taken, there would have left a two-month gap before the Government’s proposed changes to the rental sector are due to take effect in March.

The measures were rushed through the Dáil and the Seanad this week before being signed into law by Mr Higgins on Thursday evening.

The Government is being pressured again over the housing crisis after announcing a swathe of new rent and housing measures.

This includes the introduction of rent caps nationwide of 2 per cent or to inflation, whichever is lower.

This will apply to around a fifth of tenancies not already covered, but has been criticised for allowing rents to “reset” to the market rate when renters voluntarily leave a tenancy.

New six-year minimum tenancies on offer from March next year have been criticised for allowing landlords to “reset” rents every six years.

Earlier, Minister for Housing James Browne said the target to build 41,000 new homes this year was “not realistic”.

Mr Browne has admitted previously that meeting the 2025 target would be “extremely challenging” and all predictions are trending around 34,000.

Speaking on Newstalk on Thursday, he said he is committed to enacting a “step change” in the housing department and will clear “the dead wood out of the way so that homes can get delivered”.

“I think the challenge we have this year is we’re coming off a much lower base from last year than was expected,” he said of the housing targets.

“We had hoped for much higher figures last year.

 

“I think, looking at all of the different predictions, which are fairly consistent, I think 41,000 is not realistic for this year.

“We will wait to see how the year works out. I don’t particularly like getting into predictions.

“My position as minister is to maximise supply, maximise the delivery of new homes and, irrespective of what the housing numbers will be this year, I’m making a step change so we can get that housing supply up, because we need to get from 30,000 onto 50,000, on to 60,000 houses.

“40,000 houses is nowhere near enough.”

The last Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael coalition built more than 130,000 homes between 2020 and 2024, while the current coalition has set a target of in excess of 300,000 new homes between 2025 and 2030.

The target for this year is 41,000 new builds, despite the fact the Government missed its target of 33,450 last year and also missed its new-build social housing target by 1,429 last year.

The Central Bank has also projected the Government will miss its own housing targets by a wide margin for the next three years – and on Thursday revised its prediction down further, predicting 32,500 newbuilds by the end of 2025.

The Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Government, supported by several independents, has insisted boosting supply is the best way to encourage affordability while opposition parties argue more state-owned homes and regulation is needed.

“We’d gotten to a point with housing where we had seen a very significant increase in supply over the last number of years, and then it’s plateaued,” Tanaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris said.

“The job of this government, and the job we’re working on day in day out, is to get that momentum back.”