Rent controls are now in place in two more Irish towns
The cost of renting in Dublin is now 10% more expensive than the peak of the Celtic Tiger.
GREYSTONES AND DROGHEDA have been announced as the latest areas that will be subject to rent controls.
The Wicklow- and north east-based towns are now designated as Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs), which means that rents in the areas cannot rise by more than 4% annually.
To qualify as a RPZ, the rents in an area must be above the national average and have increased by at least 7% in four of the last six quarters. There are now a total of 21 RPZs across the country.
Last year, the four Dublin local authorities and Cork city were classed as RPZs. Since then, the same designation has been applied to parts of Wicklow, Kildare and Galway.
The measures followed changes introduced in 2015 by then-housing minister Alan Kelly, which included longer notice periods for any rent increases and a two-year limit on how often rents could be reviewed.
The two new additions to the list were announced today by housing Minister Eoghan Murphy at the launch of the latest Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) quarterly rent index report.
The report found that rents in Dublin are now 10% higher than they were during the peak of the rental boom at the height of the Celtic Tiger.
The report for the second quarter of this year found that rents in the capital are 10.8% above the previous peak in the last quarter of 2007.
Nationally, the average rent across all properties between April and June stood at €1,017 – which is €63 higher than the same period last year.
This marks a rise of 6.6% nationally in private sector rents across the country.
The RTB’s quarterly rent index reports measure the rents on all newly registered tenancies in the quarter. It looked at the actual rents paid by tenants as opposed to the asking prices advertised.
Over 19,000 new tenancies were registered with the RTB during the second quarter of this year.
Written by Cormac Fitzgerald and posted on TheJournal.ie
