James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

On 10 June 2025, the Government approved stronger tenancy protections and greater certainty for the rental sector, including the introduction of a national rent control. From 1 March 2026, a national rent control will be introduced for all tenancies, which will limit rent increases for properties other than new build apartments to inflation at CPI up to a maximum of 2% and for new build apartments rent increases will be capped at the level of inflation, aimed at supporting investment in the construction of new apartments.

As an interim measure, the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2025 was signed into law on 19 June 2025. The Act came into operation on 20 June 2025 to immediately extend and expand the operation of rent pressure zones to cover the entire country until 28 February 2026. This ensured that all tenancies nationally were protected from rent increases exceeding 2%, pending the introduction of a national rent control in 2026.

The Government is also committed to providing more affordable rental properties through the delivery of cost rental projects and all funded cost rental projects most achieve cost covering rents that are at least 25% below comparable local market levels. Nearly 4,000 cost rental homes have been delivered by AHBs, local authorities and the LDA since the launch of Housing for All and a strong pipeline is in place. The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, was established as a quasi-judicial independent statutory body under the residential tenancies Acts to facilitate the resolution of residential tenancy disputes and operate a national tenancy registration system. Additional resources will be allocated to the RTB to ensure the effective regulation of the sector. To this end, I am very pleased to announce that in 2026 the Exchequer funding allocation for the RTB will be increased by over 70%, to €22.8 million.

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