The Government should consider introducing rent controls on new builds, an Assistant Professor of Social Policy at Maynooth University has said. 

Daft.ie’s latest report found that rents in Ireland have soared by 13.7% in the space of a year. 

The average rent between October and December last year was €1,733 per month - 2.7% higher than in the previous quarter and more than double the average rent in 2011. 

Landlords can only increase their tenants' rent by 2% if the property is in a Rent Pressure Zone and Professor Rory Hearne said the Government should consider imposing some kind of control on new market rents as well. 

“The big issue that the Daft report points out is that this is new market rents [causing the increases],” he said. 

“So, this is the rents of new properties that are being let for the first time. 

“I think we have to look at controlling new market rents; there’s currently no control whatsoever on new rents that come to the market for new tenancies. 

“I think the Government has been completely reluctant to do that because it will deter the supply… but what are we going to allow? 

“Are we going to allow this just to continue month after month?”

AMJWF0 Newly constructed detached family homes houses in housing estate development in Mullingar County Westmeath Ireland. For sale.

Professor Hearne said the housing crisis was increasingly having a negative impact on the Irish economy. 

“Workers simply can’t afford to live,” he said. 

“They can’t afford to pay these rents and so we’re seeing shortages in key parts of the economy. 

“It is becoming, not just a social emergency, but an economic emergency.” 

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said the number of landlords leaving the market was driving up rents. 

“There obviously isn’t enough supply,” he said. 

“We need more supply across all tenures; we’ve seen a reduction in the number of private landlords in particular due to them leaving the market. 

“We’ve also seen in relation to investors and build to rent developments where in some areas of the countries, they were effectively run out of the area. 

“We need rental homes too.”

Main image: New homes in Kerry. Picture by: Alamy.com