Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 May 2017
32. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his views on whether the policies of his Department could be contributing to rises in rents in view of the CSO's finding that there was a 30% increase in rents in Dublin city over the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25024/17]
View answerIt is well understood that under-supply is the fundamental cause of the significant challenges in the housing sector. The Government's attention has been very much focused on addressing this, as is clear from the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness, published in July 2016, and the Strategy for the Rental Sector, published in December 2016, which lay out a range of measures to accelerate supply. These include the use of public land, changes to the regulatory and planning processes, funding for housing related infrastructure, schemes to get vacant properties back into use, a significantly increased social housing programme and an examination of the tax treatment of the rental sector.
The Rental Strategy also recognises that high and rapidly rising rents is the most significant and immediate threat to the accommodation security of many households. For this reason the Government introduced the Rent Predictability Measure and established the system of Rent Pressure Zones to moderate the rise in rents in the parts of the country where rents are highest and rising. In these areas, for a period of three years, rents will only be able to rise by a maximum of 4%, which is less than one third of the rate of rent inflation reported recently by Daft.ie. The measure will have a substantial impact. The practical effect of the measure is that for the next three years rents for more than 186,000 households who currently rent their homes in these areas, will be lower than they would have been if market rents had continued to apply.
My Department also continues to monitor the impact of Rent Pressure Zones in relation to social housing supports that operate in the private rental sector, for example, the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS). Each of these schemes is different in their operation and specific advice has been provided by my Department to local authorities in that regard. One of the benefits of the introduction of the Rent Predictability measure in Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) is that it will assist local authorities and tenants to secure units within the private rental market at a more sustainable and predictable cost.
A review of the Rent Predictability measure will take place next month. At that point, the provisions will have been in place for 6 months, we will have rent data from the Residential Tenancies Board for quarter 1 of 2017, and it will be possible to ascertain the effectiveness of the Rent Predictability Measure and whether any changes need to be made.
