LIMERICK renters are facing major reforms as part of plans announced by the government aimed at “boosting investment” to increase the supply of new homes.
However, local opposition have hit back at the plans, with Limerick TD and Labour spokesperson on housing, Conor Sheehan, claiming that “there is a poverty of ideas in this government”.
Speaking in the Dáil, Deputy Sheehan remarked that the government is “too timid to implement a nationwide freeze on rents or, on the other hand, to remove rent controls entirely as the vulture funds have been lobbying it to do”.
“Instead, it has cobbled together a halfway house that seeks to satisfy competing interests but in reality will satiate neither,” he hit out.
“There is a clear need to implement a better way of regulating rents and its own expert-led Housing Commission report, which the government continually ignores when it suits it, has stated the need to do this.”
As part of the changes, rent for existing tenants nationwide will be brought under the current Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) system.
However this system is set to be altered, with proposals meaning that there will be some “limited exceptions” to the current two per cent on rent increases under the RPZ system.
Landlords will be allowed to hike rents if tenants leave the home voluntarily, but not if they are evicted, while no-fault evictions have been banned outright for landlords who own four or more properties.
Smaller landlords with up to three properties can still evict tenants in certain circumstances, such as financial hardship or to move an immediate family member into the property.
Plans also include exempting new-build apartments from the two per cent rent increase cap.
Rents in apartments built after a certain date could instead increase in line with inflation.
The changes are expected to come into effect from March 1, 2026, onwards, with new tenancies created from this point to 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.
It will remain prohibited to set a rent above the market rate and landlords can still sell at any time if they use the tenant-in-situ scheme.
Minister of State at the Department of Justice and County Limerick TD Niall Collins welcomed the announcement from government, which he believes will boost investment in the supply of homes for rent and provide certainty to the wider residential market while further extending protections for renters.
“The reforms will expand rent controls to the entire country, boost rental supply and investment in the residential sector, further strengthen security of tenure for renters and end no-fault evictions for the majority of renters,” Minister Collins said:.
The Minister described the measures as “well-balanced and reasonable”, adding they will “attract investment into new apartments for the rental market in Limerick, while also protecting renters and their rights”.
However, opposition members believe the new measures will make life more difficult for renters across the country who are not covered by the provisions.
The Labour Party has called for the entire country to be covered by the rent pressure zones, and for a system of reference rents to be introduced, an issue Deputy Sheehan plans to bring legislation forward on in the coming weeks.
The proposed Renters’ Rights Bill would include measures such as a complete ban on no-fault evictions without exception and a register of rents so that tenants can have transparency on the rent previously paid on a property.
“Thousands of renters leave tenancies every year, particularly students, many of whom are packing up at the moment or have packed up by this time. They are already anxious thinking about where they are going to live next year. By allowing landlords to reset rents in between tenancies, the government is throwing these people, and eventually all renters, under the bus,” Deputy Sheehan remarked.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reported a total of 30,330 new housing units completed in 2024, down 6.7 per cent from 2023.
The decline was led by a fall in the number of apartments, which slumped 24.1 per cent to 8,763 year-on-year and by 35 per cent compared with the third quarter.
Apartments accounted for almost 29 per cent of the completions during the year, a figure that has risen in recent years from 16.3 per cent in 2019.
