Retailers say spiralling rents put 50,000 jobs at risk

MORE than 50,000 retail jobs will be lost over the next 12 months unless the Government takes action to address the problem of upward-only rent reviews for existing lease holders, shop owners warned yesterday.

The Grafton Street Tenants Association complained that recent Government legislation to ban upward-only rent reviews for all newleases, while welcome, had created a two-tier property market.

The traders told the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, that landlords, mostly institutional investors, were refusing to lower rents even though they had known for many years that such rates were unsustainable. John Corcoran, owner of Korky’s shoe shop on Grafton Street, said his annual rent had risen from €140,000 in 1995 to €445,000 in 2005, a 318% increase compared to an inflation rate over the same period of just 35%.