LIMERICK people in search of rental accommodation will find no comfort in the latest report from property website Daft.ie — with an annual increase of 17.1 per cent — the highest in the country.
Limerick City TD and Labour Party spokesperson on Housing, Jan O’Sullivan claims that the figures illustrate the absolute failure of the Government’s Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) model to slow the pace of increases in the rental market.
“The Daft.ie report, showing an annual average rent rise of 11.5 per cent, clearly illustrates that current measures are not working and Government needs to be a lot more radical to protect renters,” she declared.
“The Labour Party has introduced legislation to the Dáil that would, amongst other measures, see the Residential Tenancies Board publishing actual rents so that new tenants would know if unlawful increases were being charged. Our legislation will also extend rent pressure zones throughout the entire country.
“The situation in Limerick, which remains outside the Rent Pressure Zones, shows how necessary extending the rent pressure zone nationwide is, as Limerick’s annual increase is 17.1 per cent, higher than anywhere else in the country.
“The Dublin figure of 12.4 per cent also shows that, even within Rent Pressure Zones, urgent changes are required.
“The rate of rent increases is completely out of control with no reference towards affordability, salaries or the inflation rate in the economy as a whole. This Government needs to take a reality check and wake up to the fact that thousands of people are frightened that they will be the next to be faced with homelessness. Their ideological objection to intervening in the market can no longer be maintained,” she said.
The latest Daft report indicates that for the twenty third quarter in a row rents have risen and – despite a nominal cap of rent increases of four per cent – the annual rate of rental inflation has been above ten per cent nationwide for over two years.
“Rents have now risen by 70 per cent on average from their lowest point. Across the country, rents are significantly higher than a decade ago, even though general prices have hardly moved at all in the same period,” Ronan Lyons of Daft.ie explained.
