Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The current situation is that rental prices are, effectively, outstripping the cost of monthly mortgage repayments. That being the case, one might ask why a person would rent instead of buying. It is because house prices have risen so high that it is very difficult for most people to put together the deposit required for a house in the first place. This is an abnormal situation that indicates how broken and dysfunctional the property market is today. This generation is increasingly becoming one of people who will never be in a position to own a home and will be forever caught in a cycle of renting, with its resulting instability.

The reality is that many people who are now dependent on renting and are being faced with spiralling rental costs are no more than a missed rent payment away from being made homeless. Rent prices are moving beyond the reach of many. According to a report commissioned by Daft.ie, the national average monthly rent stood at €1,443 in the first quarter of 2021, up by 1.7% on the previous year and up almost 95% from the low of €742 a month in late 2011. However, rental prices in Dublin average €2,000 per month. The housing and rental market is like a pressure cooker and the increasing incursions by cuckoo funds into the rental sector in particular are adding fuel to the fire of an already volatile and unstable property market.

Those most affected by this dysfunctional property market will be those looking for housing and reasonable rental costs. The consequences of this dysfunction will be long housing waiting lists, homelessness and people not being able to get on the property ladder. Government policies on rent pressure zones have ensured that people on homeless HAP or housing HAP in recent years have been subjected to large increases in their HAP payments, in some cases amounting to up to 4% every two years. Such increases came about because landlords could avail of the rules in place for such zones that allowed them to put such increases onto tenants irrespective of inflation. The Bill seeks to give renters a break by freezing rents for three years and allowing them a tax credit equivalent to one month's rent. This will go some way to lifting the financial burden on hard-pressed renters and new tenants.

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