Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 December 2017
40. Deputy Jan O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if, a year after it was introduced in Dáil Éireann, he will review the legislative base for rent pressure zones, in particular the tight criteria for qualification which excludes many parts of the country in which rents have increased substantially in the past year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52065/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraSince October 2013, the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), in conjunction with the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), has produced the RTB Rent Index on a quarterly basis. The RTB Rent Index is the most accurate and authoritative rent report of its kind on the residential rented sector in Ireland. It is generated using the actual rent figures provided when registering with the RTB.
Recent legislation established rent pressure zones in certain areas and laid out the process through which further rent pressure zones can be established.
The criteria used for the designation of Rent Pressure Zones are that annual rent inflation has been 7% or above in four of the last six quarters and that the average rent in the area is above the national average rent. These criteria are used to ensure that areas where rents are both high and rising quickly are designated.
To enable the designation of rent pressure zones at a more granular level, the RTB, working with the ESRI, has developed a methodology to provide rental price information at a more local level, enabling the designation of Local Electoral Areas (LEA) as rent pressure zones as well as improving the Index more generally and providing a more detailed and useful picture of the overall performance of the rental sector. The information collected by the RTB provides a robust basis for implementing the Rent Pressure Zones and for monitoring their impact.
The coverage of the Rent Pressure Zones is substantial. Nearly 57% of all registered rental properties, involving approximately 180,000 tenancies, are currently in designated areas. There are no plans to change the designation criteria to increase the coverage. However, if other areas meet the criteria in future, they will be designated as Rent Pressure Zones.
My Department has recently conducted a review of the Rent Predictability Measure on the basis of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) rent data and of the recently conducted consultation on the operation of the Rent Pressure Zones. On 19 September as a result of the review findings, I announced a number of measures to further strengthen the effectiveness of the Rent Predictability Measure in the areas that have been designated as Rent Pressure Zones. These include making it an offence to increase rents in contravention of the legislation, providing the RTB with the powers to investigate and prosecute such cases and more closely defining the basis on which exemptions to the limits on rent increases can be claimed.
I also announced that the RTB will be given the powers and resources to take on greater regulatory responsibility in the rental sector over the next two years. As part of this change, the RTB will move towards annual registration of tenancies, which will permit the building of a national rent dataset, allowing the Board to provide benchmark rents for different property types. This enhanced data will be key to understanding trends and behaviour in the rental market as well as informing future policy decisions.
