Nearly a decade has passed since Simon Coveney, then minister for housing, announced plans to introduce a temporary 4 per cent annual cap on rent rises in Dublin and Cork.
The stopgap measure would provide a three-year window of “rent predictability” to allow housing supply to catch up with demand, he said. Some government politicians were concerned rent controls would be difficult to phase out once introduced.
Since then, rent pressure zones (RPZs), with a lower 2 per cent cap, have been expanded nationwide.
This Sunday, a significant overhaul of the private rent control system will come into force, affecting all new tenancies, while leaving existing ones under the scope of previous rules. It comes as new data from Daft shows rents have soared 79 per cent in 10 years, while the supply of lets this month reached by far its lowest levels in 20 years.
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Minister for Housing James Browne says the new measures will bring certainty and security for renters while incentivising investment to grow supply.
[ Minister for Housing expects rents to fall after recent reform of rulesOpens in new window ]
Tenancies created from March 1st onwards will be subject to rolling six-year minimum durations, during which small landlords will only be able to end the tenancy in limited “no fault” situations, such as needing to move themselves or a close family member in, or to sell due to financial hardship. Larger landlords (with four or more properties) will not be able to conduct no-fault evictions.
Annual rents during the six years will be capped at general inflation or 2 per cent, whichever is lower. For new apartments and student-specific accommodation, the 2 per cent cap does not apply, with rents restricted only by the consumer price index.
Landlords will have an option to reset rents to the market value of comparable units at the end of the six years or the start of new tenancies. This, which is a change from the RPZ regime where rents were constrained even when tenants changed, is “critical to retain existing landlords and to attract new investment”, Browne has said. However, the provision has drawn significant criticism from Opposition politicians and groups representing renters.
Rosaleen Leonard, national representative of the Community Action Tenants Union (CATU), said the Government’s messaging surrounding the 2026 Residential Tenancies Bill has been “quite confusing”. The Coalition is “couching it in language of renter protections when the reality is a lot of rents are going to go up”, she said.
[ What is happening to Irish rental laws?Opens in new window ]
“The issue of market rent resets is very scary for people because it doesn’t have any relationship to income.” There has been a rise in evictions notified to the CATU over the last several months, which she believes is “absolutely related” to the upcoming rental changes.
“Some landlords want to be able to avail of the rent reset rule immediately. We know there are rental units not being let out and we anticipate they will be let out come next week,” she said.
Seán de Búrca, vice-president of the University of Galway students’ union, said the new law is “almost certainly going to increase rents”. This is a “slap in the face for students”, for whom the lack of affordable accommodation is the “biggest barrier”, he said.
De Búrca noted that many students change tenancies on an annual basis, in line with new terms. He currently pays €700 a month to share a property with six others, which is a deal he would cling on to if remaining in the city next year “because there is that certainty”.
John-Mark McCafferty, chief executive of Threshold, a charity supporting renters experiencing problems with their tenancies, said the Government seems to be trying to strike “that impossible balance between the needs and wants of renters and landlords”.
There are “strengths” to the legislation, such as the effort to bring security of tenure via the six-year minimum tenancies and changes to eviction criteria, he said.
Threshold’s main concern is the resetting of rents to market rates, which “comes at quite a cost to renters”.
Although rents continued to increase with RPZs in place, McCafferty said the 2 per cent cap did “at least” have a “moderating effect”. He fears the reforms will bring about “substantial increases” in rents once tenancies end.
For people who want or need to move, they may ask themselves if leaving their tenancy is worthwhile, he said. “Our worry is that this could stifle people’s choices because they will worry about a hike in rent [if they move].”
Seán Moynihan, chief executive of Alone, a charity supporting older people, welcomed “key protections” of the Bill, such as greater security of tenure and new restrictions on no fault evictions. However, he said some measures “may unintentionally harm renters”, and people on fixed pensions and requiring the State’s Housing Assistance Payment could be disproportionately affected.
Particularly at an older age, “housing is about safety and security”, he said. The Government must “closely monitor” the data around market rent rates and how people on pensions are affected, he added.
Landlord Maurice Deverell said the changes raise many questions for people with multiple tenancies, as large landlords will be classified as those with four or more units. Deverell would be a large landlord under the new rules, so, if he enters new tenancies after March 1st, he said, he would only be able to sell his properties with the tenants in place.
Under such circumstances, he said, he “cannot imagine” he would start new tenancies as “you are devaluing your property by a good haircut”.
“I’m not the only one,” he said of the likelihood he would not take on new tenants. “Everyone I talk to is doing the same thing. There is just too much cost involved,” said Deverell, who is on the committee of the Irish Property Owners Association. Despite rent price inflation in recent years, he said he was “receiving a lot more rent, net, five years ago”.
Deverell said there are many “odd” features about the new rules, some of which will likely encourage people to leave properties vacant for a time or to exit the market.
Ireland’s largest commercial landlord has welcomed the regulations, which it said will “stimulate investment” and “accelerate the development of much-needed homes across Ireland”. I-Res Reit’s investors were recently told the gradual resetting of market rents will bring about a “potential” 25 per cent increase in overall rental income across the company’s portfolio over at least 10 years.
The company’s chief executive, Eddie Byrne, told investors its 3,600 or so rents have been assessed as being about 20 per cent below market value. With its portfolio expected to turn over at a rate of 10 per cent this year, he said the “opportunity to realise this embedded reversion is substantial”.
To Lorcan Sirr, Technological University Dublin lecturer and housing policy analyst, the Government is enacting a “very risky strategy” that involves “inflicting a lot of pain on tenants on the expectation supply will increase”.
The approach seems to be “just give landlords more rental income and hopefully they will build”, he said, but there is no guarantee landlords “won’t simply pocket the increased rent revenue”.
“It would increasingly seem that traditional small landlords are being squeezed out of the market,” he said, adding that the rental system is becoming “very complex”.
Market complexity is a drawback, according to Trinity College Dublin professor of economics Ronan Lyons. He said the RPZs were intended to be an emergency measure but have become a long-term feature, meaning the Republichas “one of the most complex rental systems in the world”.
The reforms bring the State “more in line with our peers”, with the aim of securing more rental stock, he said. There is evidence that increased supply has a positive impact on the market, but it takes three to five years for building projects to trickle through, he said, adding that waiting for this is “politically challenging”.
Tenants’ rights will be stronger, but small landlords will not want to deal with more complicated rules and some could opt to exit the market, he said.
“Constant change is not conducive to new supply,” Lyons said, adding that Ireland needs a “clear system that you stick with”.
A Department of Housing spokesman said the measures aim to “boost investment” in rental housing stock and “keep existing landlords in the market”.
“The changes will also provide significantly stronger tenancy protections and are finely balanced between the interests of tenants and the need for further private investment in the rental market.”
