Charities, Sinn Féin urge Government action on rent control

The latest report on rising rents highlights an urgent need for Government action on rent certainty for tenants, homelessness charities have said.

Chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust Pat Doyle called on the Government “to urgently bring forward legislation to link the cost of renting to the Consumer Price Index”.

The charity said the figures presented “a very worrying picture” and meant the “Government must now move to bring forward legislation before the Oireachtas within days of its return, following the summer recess, in order to address the issue.”

“Sustained and major increases in the cost of renting will result in more people living in insecure housing, overcrowded housing and homelessness,” Mr Doyle said.

He claimed recent history had shown an increase in housing supply was not an effective control measure. “The evidence from the Celtic Tiger period showed that rents increased dramatically even during a period of record housing output.”

‘Rent certainty’

Niamh Randall of the Simon Communities said the Government response must include “rent certainty” and enhanced security of tenure for tenants in the private rental sector.

Sinn Féin also called for action from the Government to provide rent certainty. Spokesman Dessie Ellis TD said the consequences of continuous rent increases were “not trivial” and affected everyone dependent on the private rental sector for accommodation.

“This includes middle-income working families who cannot afford to save to buy a home, low-income families that are paying up to 60 per cent of their disposable income on rent and the students whose number is on the increase every year, with fewer properties available to meet this growth.”

However, the Irish Property Owners’ Association said the Government was relying on the private rental market to cover its obligations to provide housing, while penalising the sector with additional taxes and charges. Chairman of the organisation Stephen Faughnan said property owners were leaving the market, with 40,000 having left between 2012 and 2015.

He said the “punitive tax treatment of the sector” had increased the cost of the provision of accommodation. One-third of landlords intend to sell as soon as possible, he said.