THE GOVERNMENT HAS been accused of making “sacrificial lambs” of renters, as new regulations will extend Rent Pressure Zones, but landlords won’t be subject to the 2% cap on rent increases for new tenancies.

The reforms will also put a six-year-minimum on tenancies for the first time, to be rolled out from 1 March 2026, which will ban no-fault evictions for larger landlords.

However, after the six years is up, landlords can reset the rent at market rate, avoiding the 2% cap on rent increases.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil today, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald described the proposals as “a shambles”.

“Your plan is to push up rents even further. It’s only a question of when the renters will be hit.

“This isn’t about protecting renters at all. This is about making renters carry the can for your failure in housing.

“You will allow record rents to be hiked up in the pitiful hope that big investors will save the day – the same casino behaviour that created this mess in the first place.”

She said there was “a very real danger” that the plan will “tighten” rental supply in the coming months, as landlords could delay putting properties back on the market to charge a higher rent from March next year.

Yesterday, McDonald and other opposition TDs said the reforms would “jack up” rents either in the coming months or in six years’ time, facilitated by government policy.

“This clearly meant people staying in an existing property, signing a new tenancy agreement, along with people moving into a property for the first time. And then, you were caught out,” she said.

“So throughout the afternoon, you scrambled around denying that this was the case and then sometime in the evening, somebody slipped off and bizarrely changed the press release on the department website with a new wording, a wording that changes nothing.”

Acting Social Democrats leader Cian O’Callaghan said the government has made “sacrificial lambs” of renters and is “gambling with their futures”.

He also asked the Taoiseach whether they had “ditched” the rent reset every six years based on comments given to the Dáil.

“You’ve told it all just a few minutes ago that new tenancies after March 2026 will be capped at CPI (Consumer Price Index), no mention of a reset every six years. No mention of that. Is the reset gone every six years?

“Do you accept now they are going to lead to huge rent increases for most renters, and these measures will increase hardship, poverty, evictions and homelessness for renters?”

The Taoiseach responded: “No, I don’t.”

“The bottom line is, I repeat again, all existing tenants will not have their rents increase beyond 2% and no attempts by you to sow confusion will change that reality,” he said. 

A row ensued in the Dáil when Martin accused the Social Democrats of not believing there is “a role for the market” in housing supply, to which Social Democrat TDs objected.

Martin also accused the opposition of hyperbole.

Here are the main points of the new rental regulations:

• Landlords will be allowed to hike rents in instances where tenants leave homes voluntarily, but not if they are evicted.
• No fault evictions have been banned for landlords who own four or more properties.
• Smaller landlords (up to three properties) can still evict tenants in certain circumstances, such as financial hardship or a desire for an immediate family member to move into the property.
• New tenancies created from 1 March 2026 onwards will be set at market value and offered a six-year minimum rolling tenancy.
• At the end of the six-year tenancy, the rent can be reset and “put back to the market”, meaning the first series of rent resets will take place in 2032.
• Large landlords, defined as having four or more tenancies, will be banned from carrying out no-fault evictions for tenancies beginning from 1 March 2026.
• It will remain prohibited to set a rent above the market rate. Landlords can still sell at any time if they use the tenant-in-situ scheme.

With reporting by PA