Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

There was an astonishing ruling today by the Office of the Planning Regulator, whereby it blocked a city council from introducing some small degree of control on build-to-rent apartment blocks. Dublin City Council had the temerity to insist that a percentage of apartments in build-to-rent developments be made available for sale. Second, it sought to restrict the number of studio and one-bedroom apartments in any development. Third, it sought to stipulate that build-to-rent developments should contain 100 units or more and be sufficiently large to include communal facilities. This ruling is a win for big institutional corporate investors and is a blow to both communities and local democracy in this State. How are ordinary people and communities meant to have a say in the planning process when a city development plan can be overruled by a planning regulator in this way? Rulings like this give the owners of build-to-rent developments a free hand, which will result in the raising of rents. There is no question about that. It is happening already in Dublin and is beginning to happen in Cork. In Cork, a developer was told by Deloitte that if they wanted their apartments to be viable - in other words, profitable - they would have to charge €2,800 for a two-bedroom apartment. In my community of Blackpool, a build-to-rent development has been given the go-ahead on the Redforge Road and an application has been submitted for Hewitt's Mill. Rents that go anywhere near that level will raise the ceiling for rents in that community and there will be a tendency for rents more generally to rise in the area. This does not mean we are against housing. We are in favour of housing and apartments but it should be social housing and genuinely affordable housing, not rip-off rents at incredible rates that raise the ceiling and impoverish ordinary people while making huge profits for the vulture funds.

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