Radical change needed in rent pressure zone

LOUTH TD Fergus O’Dowd has called for a radical change in Rent Pressure Zone assessments.

His call comes following the publication of the Daft.ie Rental Price Report released which showed County Louth had the highest year on year rent increases in the country at 17.5%. The Daft.ie report has shown that the 17.5% increase in County Louth Rents eclipsed the national average of 11.8%.

‘Rent pressure zones were introduced to protect tenants from extortionate and unfair rental increases,’ said Deputy O’Dowd. ‘If we cannot apply a rent pressure zone in the areas with highest national increases it shows a complete failure in the process. The electoral areas of County Louth have shown significant increases over the last 18 months qtr on qtr and year on year, in particular Drogheda, have shown to have extortionate levels of rent inflation over the last 18 months.’

He said this call follows on from his invitation in March to the Residential Tenancy Board to visit Drogheda and find a family rental property for €907, the figure that they calculated as the average rental figure for the electoral area of Drogheda in the March assessments for RPZs. ‘ The RTB have still not responded, but that’s no surprise. I have requested a meeting with Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy TD, to discuss the necessary changes that are needed .’