I recognise that rental properties can present a specific challenge for energy efficiency improvements. This is an issue found in most countries where the incentives to invest in energy upgrades can be misaligned between landlords and tenants.
The Government’s Housing for All Plan commits to the introduction of a minimum BER for private rental properties, where feasible, from 2025, and to develop a roadmap to implement these standards. Additionally, as part of Ireland’s residential retrofit programme, the Government has approved a new package of supports targeting homes that were built and occupied pre-2011. These supports have been made available to non-corporate landlords and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to undertake home energy upgrades, with lower energy bills and to improve the efficiency of their rental properties including:
- The National Home Energy Upgrade Scheme (One Stop Shop Service) provides grant support of approximately 50% of the typical cost for private landlords with higher supports available for AHBs.
- The Better Energy Homes Scheme provides support to landlords for step-by-step retrofits.
- 80% grants are available to landlords for attic and cavity wall insulation, which are low-cost measures that can be installed quickly and cost effectively.
In addition to these supports, a new tax incentive to encourage small-scale landlords to undertake retrofitting works while the tenant remains in situ was announced last year. This measure provides for a tax deduction of up to €10,000 per property, against Case V rental income, for certain retrofitting expenses incurred by the landlord on rented residential properties, for a maximum of two rental properties. Full details are set out in Section 32 of the Finance Act 2022.
It should also be noted that the Housing for All plan commits to the retrofitting of 36,500 local authority homes by 2030 as part of the achievement of the Climate Action Plan retrofit targets.
