Fianna Fáil looks at rent-a-room scheme

Tax incentives for small landlords and for rural home owners to rent out rooms will be among Fianna Fáil’s general election promises.

Party leader Micheál Martin also maintains rents are too high and need to be controlled.

Mr Martin defended his party’s record on home building during previous housing crises. However, he said more radical measures were needed, in particular to help young renters and buyers, or there would be an implosion in society.

“We’re looking for tax incentive facilitation or tax rates and incentives for smaller landlords in particular,” he said.

The party’s core housing strategy for the looming election will be about boosting supply. Nonetheless, Mr Martin believes many small landlords need help to stay in the market. Furthermore, there should be more incentives, particularly in rural areas to rent out a room.

“We need more landlords in the market,” he said. “We’re losing landlords as well, but there has to be something done to control rents.

“There’s a lot of housing stock out there that is not being used. We already have some incentives, but the evidence is the way the market is developing with large institutions coming in. There are many people with two houses, three houses some who, because of their own personal finances are, renting out apartments or whatever. But they’re finding it difficult.

“And I think we’ve got to get that balance right, make sure that we have a steady flow of people into the market plus, you know there’s an existing incentive for example if you have a house and you are living alone that you get an incentive to rent out a room, and so on.

And I think there’s untapped potential there, as there is in rural Ireland in terms of utilising accommodation that’s not been fully utilised.

Sinn Féin tabled a bill earlier this month to introduce a three-year rent freeze. While Fianna Fáil backed the move in a Dáil vote, the legislation has still be teased out at committee stage and by parties. It remains unclear if Fianna Fáil will follow through with its support for the Sinn Féin move.

The Government is also opposed to it. However, Mr Martin is adamant that despite rent-pressure zones in areas, that controls are needed to help tenants.

“There’ll be an implosion in our society if we don’t deal with the huge challenges that young people face today, in either affording rent or in having a realistic prospect of being able to buy a house at the moment,” he said.

“They don’t have that. And too much of their income is being eaten up by excessive rents. And the rents have gone too high and they have to be controlled.”

The Government says rent control or pressure-zone areas are working. New residential tenancies board figures last week revealed that rents rose more than 8% nationally in the third quarter against a year ago.

However, there are signs of some easing of rates in Ireland’s two main cities.

The Residential Tenancies Board data showed that, in Dublin, the average rent rose €110 or 6.6% to €1,762. This is still above the rent-pressure zone cap of 4%. It is a fall from the 9.6% rise recorded for the same period last year.

Rents in Cork City rose by a slower pace in July to September, rising 1.4% to €1,192.