Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 April 2018
1566. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if a review of the way in which rent pressure zones are performing has been completed; and the future plans for these zones. [15843/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department recently conducted a review of the Rent Predictability Measure on the basis of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) rent data and the recently conducted public consultation on the operation of the Rent Pressure Zones. In September 2017, arising from the review findings, I announced a number of measures to further strengthen the effectiveness of the rent setting and rent review laws including the implementation of a change plan to develop and strengthen the role of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), particularly with regard to enforcement.
These measures include the intention to make it an offence to increase rents in contravention of the legislation and to provide the RTB with the necessary powers and resources to protect tenants from illegal rent increases.
A landlord will be required to notify the RTB of any exemption claimed from the rent increase limits and the RTB will be empowered to take follow-up enforcement action, if required. These changes will strengthen the impact of the Rent Predictability Measure and should contribute to a further slowing in the growth in rents, in tandem with increasing supply. These enhanced enforcement procedures to be introduced in 2018 will reform the Rent Pressure Zone mechanism to deliver a more effective and transparent approach to its operation.
The Government has given priority to the drafting and early publication of a Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill to address these and other urgent issues in the residential rental sector.
The RTB is also planning to move towards annual registration of tenancies, which will permit the building of a national rent dataset. This enhanced data will be key to understanding trends and behaviour in the rental market as well as informing future policy decisions.
The Residential Tenancies Board’s latest quarterly Rent Index Report for Q4 2017, which was published last month, shows reductions in the rate of rental inflation across both national and Dublin rents. The slowdown in the quarterly growth rate in Dublin rents to 1.1% in Q4 2017 is particularly noteworthy, bringing the annualised growth rate over 2017 to 5.2%, a drop from 8% in the year to Q3 2017. Significantly, this 5.2% increase for Dublin is the lowest annual growth rate since 2013. This latest quarterly index provides evidence that the introduction of the RPZs, in December 2016, is having a positive effect on rent inflation, particularly in Dublin.
