‘Rent credits will help – a rent freeze would be better’

THE increase in rent tax credit will help tenants – but not as much as a rent freeze would, one renter has said. As part of Budget 2024, the €500 rent tax credit available for both 2022 and 2023 is set to increase to €750 next year. Roux Mellet, 40, is living in a rented apartment in Sligo. Originally from South Africa, he has been in Ireland for more than three years. Mr Mellet, who was helped during a dispute with a landlord by the Community Action Tenants Union (CATU), said although rent credits work, ‘a rent freeze would be better’. ‘People won’t know about it and won’t be aware of it – it’s predicated on people thinking that something is due to them,’ he said. ‘If it was a blanket measure that everyone with a PPSN were to get this credit, then yes.’

He said more aggressive policies should be used to increase housing stock, and a vacancy tax was not proactive enough.

But he said the tenant-in-situ scheme is working.

‘A rent freeze would be amazing, but the uproar that would cause means it’s not something we would likely see.’

The rent tax credit, worth €1,000 across the years 2023 and 2022, is available to tenants who can claim it by completing a tax return online via Revenue’s MyAccount or by completing a paper return.

Government figures indicate 238,066 households – either couples or individuals – have claimed for the credit as of July, with an estimated 400,000 eligible for the credit.

He said: ‘The (rent credit) is hypothetical.’

He agreed that energy credits and income tax tweaks will help people afford housing.

‘All of these things, they will help some people, and they will help a great amount of people,’ he said.

‘But again, is it enough? It feels these are all just nice little things to roll out. I have to take more than €20 out of my wallet to pay for a pack of tobacco.’