Will new rent rules help or hurt tenants - or fix the housing crisis?

The Government will bring its latest housing fix to Cabinet today when it presents new rules on rent levels for approval.

Aimed at boosting supply – by encouraging large institutional investors to build and small landlords to stay in the market – the plan primarily concerns rules around Rent Pressure Zones (RPZ).

These were established in 2016 – the number of such zones grew over the years – to curb rent rises. Landlords could only raise rents annually, first by 4 per cent and in a subsequent change to the rules, by 2 per cent.

Now landlords of new builds – new houses or apartments – do not have to abide by those caps. Also when a new tenancy begins, a landlord can charge market rent – not the capped RPZ level. Existing tenants will still have 2 per cent rises, for the six-year duration of the lease.

There will also be new measures to prevent landlords evicting existing tenants simply to greatly raise the rent for a new tenancy.

Consumer Affairs Correspondent Conor Pope says no one is happy with the new plan, but why?

And does the plan make sense? Economics Correspondent Eoin Burke-Kennedy gives his analysis. Will the move really lure capital investment into Ireland’s housing market?

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.

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