Those on rent supplement ‘could afford 20% of available rentals’

Just 20 per cent of houses or apartments available to rent could be afforded by people on on rent supplement, despite a recent increase in the rent supplement caps, a report has found.

The report from the Simon Community is the fifth in the charity's series on the rental market and the first since the rent cap increases in July. It shows 55 per cent fewer properties available to rent at any price, compared with May 2015.

The Locked Out report, a regular snap-shot of the private rented market, looks at price and availability in ten locations - Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick city centres, Portlaoise, Athlone, Sligo and Dundalk, as well as north Kildare and Leitrim.

Just 518 homes were available to rent at any price between 30th August and 1st September when the survey was conducted, compared with 1,150 in the first survey, 17 months ago.

Of the 518 available, eight were within the rent supplement and housing assistance payment (HAP) caps open to single people, 11 were for couples, 49 for parents with one child and 34 for couple of lone-parents with two children.

These numbers represent slight improvements in availability since the caps on the rent that households on rent supplement/HAP are allowed pay were increased.

Compared with May 2016. there were 73 more properties available within rent-caps - seven more available to single people, three more for couples, 32 more for parents with one child and 31 more for parents with two children, than there were in May 2016.

"We are still talking about very limited availability for households dependent on rent supplement and HAP," said Niamh Randall, national spokeswoman for the Simon Communities. "There are still too few given the sheer scale of the housing and homelessness crisis."

Single people and couples were particularly harshly impacted by a dearth of available rentals.

“They must be specifically targeted given the disproportionate impact inadequate RS/HAP limits are having on them.”

The forthcoming Government strategy on the rental market - part of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland strategy and due to published in coming weeks - must include "real rent certainty" and a strategy to attract private investors into affordable rental on a large scale. While Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits) were coming into the Irish market they remained focussed on "high-end" expensive rentals, she said. This needed to change.

“The rent stability measures introduced in November 2015 have not had the desired effect of slowing the market and rising rents. RS and HAP limits must be monitored and adjusted on bi-annual basis to ensure people on these payments can actually compete for housing.”

She also called for the nationwide extension of the tenancy protection service, which currently operates in Dublin, Cork , Galway, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow, Mayo and Roscommon.