Housing Minister Simon Coveney has confirmed his rent cap scheme is set to be extended to a number of commuter towns in Cork by the end of the month – most likely Ballincollig, Carrigaline, Douglas, Rochestown and Passage West.
Main Street, Ballincollig. Pic: Denis Scannell
Under the scheme, landlords implementing rent hikes can only raise rents by a maximum of 4% each year.
The mechanism is already in operation in Cork city and in Dublin, but is now due to be rolled out in up to 25 additional areas nationwide.
“By the middle of next week I should have recommendations coming from the Housing Agency on areas that they’re recommending we should assess in detail using data from the Residential Tenancies Board to become designated as rent pressure zones,” he said.
“The indications are that I’ll get recommendations for about 15 or 16 local electoral areas, because we can now get data on the basis of local electoral areas rather than local authority areas, so we can break it down to much smaller areas.”
Each electoral area comprises a number of towns, but the Minister doesn’t envisage that all of them will qualify for the rent cap scheme. He said up to 80% of them could make the cut, meaning he estimates between 20 and 25 areas in Ireland could see rent caps implemented this month.
For an area to qualify for the rent cap scheme, rents need to be above the national average, and there needs to have been an annual rental inflation of at least 7% for four of the previous six quarters.
As such, the only electoral area in Cork likely to meet the criteria for implementing the rent cap scheme is the Ballincollig/Carrigaline area.
This means towns such as Ballincollig, Carrigaline, Douglas, Rochestown and Passage West could see that introduction of a 4% rent cap by the end of the month.
However, Minister Coveney stopped short of identifying any exact area rent caps would be implemented, saying he didn’t want landlords in those areas using the time between now and the implementation of the rent cap to either hike rents or evict tenants.
“What we’re trying to create here is a much more stable more predictable, calmer rental market where if we see evidence that rental prices are spiraling out of control, something is triggered that stops that so we can create a balancing effect within the rental market,” said Minister Coveney.
“For some landlords, this isn’t welcome news. But my job is to make decisions that are in the greater good.”
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