LABOUR OR SOCIAL Democrats? Which party is promising a three-year rent freeze, a ban on no-fault evictions and a clearer, more transparent rental market?

It’s both of them, actually. 

Both parties were out in Dublin city centre today to announced their plans to provide renters with better rights in the wake of a damning report from Daft.ie.

Average rents are dramatically increasing all over the country and, with a dwindling supply, the expected price to pay for a property is almost €2,000 per month, according to today’s Rental Price Report.

Both parties said because the government has failed to get the private rental market under control, State intervention is needed.

Speaking to reports outside the building of real estate investor Kennedy Wilson, Social Democrats candidate for Dublin North-Central Rory Hearne said some institutional investors are taking part in “profit gouging” and that those rents are unfair. 

Hearne, who is a lecturer in housing policy at Maynooth University, said many institutional investors see Ireland as a good place to do business and that the Social Democrats want them to invest in affordable housing instead.

Sinn Féin has also proposed a three-year rent freeze and a ban on no-fault evictions.

When it comes to how to regulate institutional investors in the housing market, Labour and the Social Democrats differ.

The Social Democrats are proposing an all-out ban on the bulk purchase of existing homes, claiming that the practice “locks out” first-time buyers. Hearne said the party also wants to increase the level of tax that the firms also pay on their rental income.

Meanwhile, Labour is proposing an increase on the stamp duty for the bulk-purchase of  houses or apartments.

Labour’s Dublin South-Central candidate Darragh Moriarty said more landlords need to respect renters’ rights: “On [RTÉ] the other night, Paschal Donohoe said we need more landlords - I don’t disagree with that but we don’t need slumlords.

“We have to stop slumlords for being able to ride roughshod all over renters’ rights. And that’s why we think strong renters’ protection has to be front and center of any next government, whether we’re in it or not,” he added.

Eviction ban

Both parties are promising to reinstate the no-fault eviction ban and try to incentivise the increase usage of the tenant-in-situ scheme, so that a resident can remain in the property while it is being sold to a new owner or the local authority.

(L-R) Labour Party candidate Darragh Moriarty & Soc Dems candidate Rory Hearne. Alamy / RTÉ Alamy / RTÉ / RTÉ

Hearne said: “An introduction of a no-fault ban on evictions would mean that, as a renter, if you’re paying your rent, if you’re doing nothing wrong, you can stay in that home, and a landlord cannot evict you.

“This is a common measure across Europe, and we should meet our European countries and introduce this protection for renters.”

Short-term measures

Both parties agree that the answer to the problem of high rents is in building up supply and Labour and the Social Democrats are promising to build 30,000 and 25,000 affordable homes over five years, respectively.

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But controlling skyrocketing rents by disallowing increases and making the rental market more transparent in the short term must also be completed. Moriarty said that the sector needs to be professionalised.

“If you have a relationship with a tenant, it is a professional relationship and we need to have the standards professionalised,” Moriarty told journalists.

Moriarty said that the professionalisation of a tenant-landlord relationship will be further complemented by Labour’s new idea to introduce a Rent Register – which will detail the previous costs of leasing a property for better transparency.

The Social Democrats, similarly, propose a ‘Reference Rent’ system – where the price of properties in the same area and of the similar size and quality are publically listed on a  database that pegs rent to the baseline price.

Both parties are also proposing tougher regulations on short-term lets.

The Social Democrats says this can be done by empowering local authorities to enforce planning rules while Labour wants tourist levies and a separate property register for holiday homes, under the control of Fáilte Ireland.

Today’s Daft.ie Rent Price Report found that the average rent around Ireland now stands at €1955 per month and that there is an urgent need to address the lack of supply in the private market. 

Ronan Lyons, author of the report and an economist at Trinity College, said the government’s attention has been focused on owner-occupied homes and social housing and that the upswing in construction of rental accommodation in Dublin is “over”.

He said, if not addressed urgently, construction trends in the rest of Ireland are likely to mirror Dublin.