The Government has been accused of “making it up as it goes along” after agreeing to changes to the rental system.
Under plans agreed on Monday night by coalition leaders and housing minister James Browne, the entire country will come under a rent control system for the first time.
The party leaders agreed to the new system of national rent control that will see the existing rent pressure zones no longer applying to new tenancies.
The rent pressure zones will be retained with rent increases for existing tenancies linked to inflation and capped at 2%, but will be extended nationally, meaning every area of the country will be designated a rent pressure zone.
It means that nearly a fifth of renters who currently reside outside rent pressure zones will now fall under the system. However, new build homes will see rental increases tied to inflation.
There will also be measures to introduce stronger tenancy protection and provide greater security of tenure, with what a source called “significantly stronger security of tenure including an end of no-fault evictions in the case of large landlords”. However, what constitutes a large landlord has yet to be defined.
Labour’s housing spokesman Conor Sheehan said the Government was “making it up as it goes along”.
“Exempting new build apartments from rent controls may not lead to any increase in supply, and any supply that emerges will be unaffordable.
“The Governments need to clarify what exactly it is proposing in terms of any proposed ban on no-fault evictions which must be watertight and unequivocal.
“The devil will be in the detail in relation to this, and we need to see the proposals when they are published.
“This is far from the radical reset that is needed, and [is] more tinkering around the edges,” he added.
