Social Democrats Political Director and Spokeswoman on Consumer Affairs, Anne-Marie McNally, today called for urgent measures to curb runaway prices for new and refurbished rental properties.
“People trying to secure new or refurbished rental properties are now being hit with intolerable rent hikes, with today’s figures from the Residential Tenancies Board showing rents for new tenancies rising by almost 50 per cent more than existing ones.”
Social Democrats Political Director and Spokeswoman on Consumer Affairs, Anne-Marie McNally, today called for urgent measures to curb runaway prices for new and refurbished rental properties.
Ms McNally said:
“People trying to secure new or refurbished rental properties are now being hit with intolerable rent hikes, with today’s figures from the Residential Tenancies Board showing rents for new tenancies rising by almost 50 per cent more than existing ones
“The latest figures show that renters in Dublin paid €156 more a month to rent a property in September than they did a year earlier. Refurbished properties and properties being let for the first time are not covered by rent caps. As long at the dire shortage of properties continues, it’s inevitable that asking prices for these types of properties will keep going up and up, forcing many people out of the rental market and into homelessness.
“Much more needs to be done to curb the rate of rent increases for new tenancies, especially in cities like Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick where demand is high. The Social Democrats have repeatedly called for an immediate rent freeze on a nationwide basis as an emergency measure until supply catches up with demand.
“The government also needs to strengthen laws to curb ‘renovictions’ – where landlords end tenancies on the grounds of renovation work that they have no intention of carrying out.
“We know from recent figures from Threshold that this ground for termination is being used by some landlords as a spurious way to terminate tenancies, as well as to circumvent rent pressure zone legislation.”
ENDS
13th December 2018