Strategy to provide rent certainty ‘ready within months’

A national rental market strategy which aims to provide rent certainty and security of tenure to tenants should be ready within months.

Housing Minister Simon Coveney confirmed yesterday that the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) is examining various European models with a view to making recommendations to him by the end of the year.

However, he signalled that rent caps are unlikely to feature amid concerns that such controls could drive investors out of the rental market, and further exacerbate the housing supply crisis.

“There are no simplistic silver bullets here in terms of managing the rental market more effectively,” said Mr Coveney. “We will introduce a whole series of things to try and get that balance between landlord and tenant rights which is more effective than anything we’ve done in the past.”

Mr Coveney was speaking at the launch of a major report yesterday on housing charity Threshold’s Tenancy Protection Scheme (TPS) in Cork which has saved more than 2,600 people in the south west from homelessness.

Cork has the highest rate of rental inflation in the country, running at 15% — some 4% more than in the capital.

Threshold launched TPS in Cork and Kerry in January 2015 to provide advice and support to vulnerable tenants. It also provides a fast-track avenue for tenants in Cork city and its environs who are in receipt of rent supplement to seek increased payments to match increases in rent.

Since its launch, TPS has:

• Prevented 1,055 households (2,633 people, including 1,186 children) from becoming homeless;
• Protected 956 tenancies;
• Found suitable alternative accommodation for 99 households;
• Helped 1,227 callers to the service;
• Achieved a 99.7% success rate in preventing homelessness.

The total cost of preventing the 1,055 households from becoming homeless was just over €220,000 — a fraction of the cost of providing them with emergency accommodation.

Threshold chairwoman Aideen Heydon said the Government must prioritise similar targeted measures to prevent homelessness.

“It is possible to do it and it is incredibly cost-effective — we’ve proven that it’s possible to do,” she said.

However, she said the Government must address the issue of rising rents.

“We control prices in other areas — for example we wouldn’t let what’s happening in the housing market happen, for example, to the price of basic food products. We must have a rent certainty model to ensure that rents can only rise by a reasonable amount.

“One in five Irish families live in a rented house — the figure is even higher in Cork. They need certainty — they need to know their children will be in the same school next year, and the year after, and if they invest in their communities, they have some reasonable hope of living in those homes.

“We are dealing on the frontline with thousands of people on the coal face, we know exactly where flexibility is required.”