Rents on 26,000 homes hiked significantly in excess of 2% limit
Of Experienced File Increase Rent Annual Sitting Picture: An 2% Or 74% The Said Of Less Tenants Rtb
Just under 26,000 rental properties in Ireland saw their rents raised significantly in excess of the 2% limits allowable under Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) legislation between 2022 and 2024.
The property level data compiled by the Economic and Social Research Institute on behalf of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) shows that the rents on more than one fifth of the 118,400 properties in rent pressure zones considered were raised significantly in excess of those limits in that time.
Despite this, the RTB, the body with responsibility for regulating landlords, underlined that, nationally, "74% of sitting tenants experienced an annual rent increase of 2% or below” over the same period, with the majority of rents having remaining unchanged in RPZs during the period in question.
However, more than 4,300 rental properties nationwide saw their rents increase by at least 8% over the 21-month period.
The RTB also noted that all information on rent levels is collated from landlords themselves, with the figures not subsequently checked for accuracy with the tenants in question.
The data was released simultaneously with the RTB’s latest quarterly rent index, which shows that nationally, rents have increased by 8.1% since the end of June 2023, with the average new rent for an Irish tenancy now €1,612.
Despite the disquieting RPZ figures, the RTB’s new director Rosemary Steen insisted that the regulator is “not in any way being ‘softly softly’” when it comes to the serious nature of the rent hikes.
“We are pleased to see that the vast majority of tenancies are, as far as we can see, properly managed in that the RPZ is being properly applied," she said.
She said the RTB will seek further information based on the new data and ensure that renters are receiving the proper protections.
It is the first time such a property-level analysis has been produced due to the fact that the rents of individual properties have only been collated by the RTB since early 2022.
The RTB acknowledged, meanwhile, that tenancies where one resident has vacated and another has signed a new lease are not included in the released data, with figures on such rentals not likely to be available until the end of the year.
RPZs were introduced by then housing minister Simon Coveney in 2016 as a means of limiting skyrocketing rents from becoming completely unaffordable for tenants in areas where prices are “high and rising fast”.
Under that legislation, rents in such zones can only be raised by a maximum of 2% per annum, notwithstanding certain exceptions, such as if the property has been vacant for two years, or if significant redevelopment work has been carried out.
Just under 83% of private tenancies are now located in rent pressure zones, the RTB said. The regulator added that both the Carrigaline local electoral area and Galway County have now been designated as RPZs, on foot of the latest data.