Rental controls in Limerick are ‘far too late’, says FF election candidate

METROPOLITAN district cathaoirleach James Collins has said it is "unforgiveable" who late private rental controls were imposed on properties in the city.

He was speaking after new information from rental and home ownership web site www.daft.ie that rental rates had jumped 10% year-on-year.

Cllr Collins believes landlords had already upped their rent ahead of the designation of the city as a Rent Pressure Zone, a measure which means charges for tenants rise a maximum of 4% in a year.

The City East electoral area was first with the controls, followed by the rest of the city – but the inclusion of the district containing Castletroy, Cllr Collins argues, gave suitable forewarning to landlords to hike rents ahead of the legislation coming in for the whole city.

“When the entire Limerick Metropolitan Area was designated as a Rent Pressure Zone earlier this year, it was clear that the horse had already bolted, because landlords had already upped their rents, anticipating that a clampdown on rent hikes was coming.

“These latest figures from daft.ie prove dithering by a Dublin obsessed Housing Minister has cost Limerick renters dearly. In reality, renters are already paying €117 more per month on rent than 12 months ago,” Cllr Collins said.

Telling renters their rates can only go up by 4% between now and 2021 is pointless, he added, because “those same renters have already had to hand over an extra €117 a month.”

“I called for Limerick to be designated as a rent pressure zone in December 2016, when this Government first introduced them, but for some reason this Fine Gael government thought only the people of Dublin and Cork were paying exorbitant rents.

“It’s simply unforgivable that Limerick had to wait more than two years as RPZ designations were extended to Wicklow, Meath, Kildare, Galway, and Louth but not to Ireland’s third city.” 

Cllr Collins claimed since Fine Gael came to power in 2011, renters here have seen their monthly rent increase on average by €650 a month.

“That equates to the monthly repayments on a €100,000 mortgage. The next generation are being priced out of buying affordable homes, and forced into renting,” he told The Leader, “This government’s housing policy is failing.”