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TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has moved to temper expectations around Rent Pressure Zones being abolished, stating that he was “surprised” by some headlines today.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels this afternoon, Martin said he will await the results of a review into how the rental market operates before making any decisions on the rent capping scheme.
Yesterday, the Taoiseach said the Government could look at developing an ‘alternative system’ to Rent Pressure Zones when they expire at the end of this year.
However, when asked about it today he stressed that no decisions have been made yet.
“I never used the phrase ‘end’, or ‘abolition’, for that matter,” he said today when asked about renters’ concerns that rents will spiral further if RPZs are removed.
“What we did say, we would examine the Housing Commission Report and the section on the rental market,” he said.
The Housing Commission Report completed last year by a group of experts included a number of recommendations to Government. Overall, the report found that a radical overhaul of housing policy was needed in Ireland.
Among its recommendations was for RPZ to be “reviewed” and a system of “reference rents” to be introduced.
Such a system would peg rent increases to a reference rent for local dwellings of similar quality.
“I mean, many people had said we hadn’t engaged enough with the Housing Commission Report,” Martin said today, adding that a review of RPZs was a key part of the recommendations.
“I think it is important to examine what was recommended,” he said.
“We do need to bring more private sector investment into house building.”
— Jane Matthews (@janeematthews) February 10, 2025
The Taoiseach has moved to roll back expectations around Rent Pressure Zones being abolished, saying he was surprised by some of today’s headlines.
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The Taoiseach noted that the report recommended “an evidence-based approach to reforming the rental market” and said that examination will now be carried out by this Government.
“I’m not going to preempt any outcome of it. But we do need to bring more private sector investment into house building. We will protect renters. We brought in the Rent [Tax] Credit specifically to do that, and the rent pressure zones have been effective in quite a number of areas,” he said.
“And what really is the key issue for investment is a stable environment, it doesn’t keep chopping and changing from year to year. So that people investing in the construction industry in Ireland, or indeed in the rental market, can do so with some degree of certainty.”
In Rent Pressure Zones (RPZ) rent increases are capped at 2% per year.
Rent Pressure Zones were first introduced in Dublin and Cork in 2016 for a period of three years, but RPZs have since been expanded across the country.
They were to remain in place until 31 December 2024 but last May, the Government agreed to extend them until 31 December 2025.
The Taoiseach told RTÉ on Sunday that he wanted to develop an alternative system “which protects renters but also enables people to have a clear stable environment in which to invest”.
”The Government is spending huge amounts of money in housing, record levels of spending. The State can’t do it all on its own, and we have to be honest about that. I believe it will entail politically very difficult decisions,” he said yesterday.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said today that scrapping RPZ regulations would result in “even more dramatic increases in rents than we have seen in recent years”.
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