RENTS ACROSS IRELAND are at an all-time high, yet a bill that has cross-party and union support is to be opposed by government today.
The Secure Rents and Tenancies Bill proposed by Sinn Féin aims to deal with three key areas - rent certainty, indefinite leases and removing the sale of the property as a reason for eviction.
It’s been co-signed by Independents for Change, Labour, People before Profit, the Anti-Austerity Alliance, the Social Democrats, and the Green Party and is backed by a number of unions.
Fianna Fáil are planning to put down amendments to the bill this evening.
Uplift campaign group is also urging TDs to support the bill.
Rents rose nationwide by an average of 11.7% in the year to September 2016, according to the latest quarterly rental report from property website Daft.ie.
This is the largest annual increase in rents ever recorded in the Daft.ie report, which extends back to 2002. The average rent in Ireland during the third quarter of the year, between July to September, was €1,077 – also an all-time high for the report.
Yesterday, it was agreed at Cabinet that the government would oppose the bill.
Housing Minister Simon Coveney is planning to launch his rental strategy next month which hopes to deal with the crisis of soaring rents and tenants’ rights. The strategy is part of the housing department’s Rebuilding Ireland action plan.
“This crisis is affecting all those living in the private rented sector. Low and middle-income renting families are now paying between 40% and 60% of their disposable income on rent, with families relying on rent supplement or housing assistance payment (HAP) being priced out of the market. The 200% increase in family homeless since 2014 is a direct result of this crisis in the rental sector,” said Sinn Féin’s Eoin O’Broin.
Young people now have nowhere to rent in the city that they work in. According to the Residential Tenancies Board, in Dublin the average rent for a one bedroom home has increased by 24% that’s an additional €2,940 per year.
He said renters can no longer wait for the government to act.
O’Broin said the bill is being tabled today “to put pressure on the government and Minister Simon Coveney to include rent certainty and real security of tenure in his long-awaited rental strategy”.
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