'Urgent' need for three-year rent freeze, says Sinn Féin

There were fewer than 1,400 homes available to rent at the beginning of February countrywide

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin O Broin said: "Rents are higher than they have ever been, so the idea that a three year emergency ban on rent increases would have any negative impact on future levels of investment is simply nonsense."

Sinn Féin has called for the urgent introduction of a three-year rent freeze and a refundable tax credit for renters after the latest Daft report showed a 10% spike in rents.

There were fewer than 1,400 homes available to rent at the beginning of February, with the shortage of homes countrywide pushing rent inflation to a two-year high.

The property website said the figure was a new “all-time low” since it began its records in January 2006.

This scarcity is contributing to increasing market rents, which during the final months of 2021 were an average of 10.3% higher than during the same period in 2020, the report found.

Sinn Féin's spokesperson on housing Éoin Ó Broin said: "As somebody who's been watching these reports quarter on quarter for about a decade, this one is genuinely surprising."

He added: "We have 20 counties that are having double digit rental inflation - Donegal remarkably at 24%.

At that time when all of the other costs are spiraling out of control and people are struggling with that cost of living crisis, this latest information is going to add fuel to the fire.

Mr Ó Broin called for a ban on rent increases across the country.

"Rents are higher than they have ever been, so the idea that a three year emergency ban on rent increases would have any negative impact on future levels of investment is simply nonsense. If you can't make a return at the current levels of rents, then you're clearly not a good business person and you should get out of the rental game."

He added that we now need to go "a step further" and introduce a refundable tax credit to put money back into the pockets of struggling renters.

"Anybody who's on the minimum wage or low income, they're in receipt of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), that's about a third of tenancies. The refundable tax credit is for the two thirds of private renters who get no State support currently, and while some of those would be lower income workers they would be above the threshold for social housing," he said.