Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has honed in on the issue of the shrunken market for homes to rent. In recent months the lack of available rental stock around the country has become evident. Speaking in the Dáil this week, the minister said that tax measures may need to be examined to keep “mom-and-pop landlords” from exiting the market.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin also raised concerns about the rising number of people in homelessness during a Dáil debate on rent and housing issues. The minister told Ó Broin that he would be interested in hearing some of Sinn Féin’s parties plans and policies to help keep one-off and small landlords in the system.
A recent Real Estate Alliance (REA) survey found that landlords leaving the market accounted for almost one in four home sales in the last three months of 2021. The group said changing legislation associated with the residential rental market had become a deterrent to non-institutional landlords, and that the selling up of rental properties will put further pressure on the pool of property available for tenants.
When the rising cost of rent was brought up in the Dáil, Ó Broin said the rental market is continuing to spiral out of control. “In Dublin we have seen the end of the Covid-19 flattening of rents, with a significant upward increase of 9% for new rents. This means that the average cost of a new rental in Dublin today is €23,634, which is an astonishing sum of money.
“If one tracks back through the Residential Tenancies Board reports, since 2011 rents in the capital have increased by more than 100%. They have increased by approximately 15% since the Minister took office,” he commented.
“Behind all of these figures there are very real people. The impact of these rising rents is very severe. A significant number of renters, and particularly those who are losing rental tenancies and trying to secure new ones, are experiencing severe financial hardship,” he added.