Rents must be limited to one-quarter of median household income in response to what is now a “crisis of proportions we’ve never, ever seen.”
A new People Before Profit bill would establish a National Rent Authority that would calculate the median household income and limit rents to one-quarter of that figure.
The median would be calculated on both a national and local level – with the rental limit set at whichever is the lower of the two.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, People Before Profit (PBP) housing spokesperson Richard Boyd Barrett said people in good jobs are now falling into homelessness every week.
“We have to take some sort of measure to deal with rents that are now utterly, utterly unaffordable,” he said.
“Average rents in Dublin are now running at €2,000 per month. In my area, they’re well in excess of €2,200 a month and the consequences is that the vast, vast majority of working people - people on median to low incomes - simply can’t afford anywhere to rent and are being driven, on a weekly basis, into homelessness.”
"Pie in the sky"
Also on the show, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers (IPAV) CEO Pat Davitt said the bill was “pie in the sky to say the least.”
“The deputy knows well that, at the moment, landlords are leaving the marketplace in huge numbers.
“Our members throughout the country, 50% of their sales are from landlords leaving the market.
“It would be good for them because the deputy would drive a lot more landlords to leave the market so that would mean more sales of course.”
He warned that the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) is struggling to regulate the rental market as it is, “never mind bringing in another party to adjust the rents.”
He said the measure would also hurt landlords who are using rental income to pay off their mortgages.
Rent controls
Deputy Boyd Barrett said countries all over Europe are introducing rent control measures – some of which are “far more stringent” than the PBP proposal.
“The idea it can’t be done is simply nonsense,” he said.
“It can be done and more to the point, it has to be done now because we are facing a crisis of proportions we have never ever seen.
“It’s on a weekly basis now that anybody - this is including people working in quite good jobs - can be driven into homelessness because there’s literally nowhere they can afford to rent.
“That situation is not sustainable.”
Speaking in the plinth at the Leinster House meanwhile, Deputy Boyd Barrett said the reason his party has lost confidence in the government is because it is refusing to take on board positive proposals from the opposition on issues like the housing crisis.
He said the government can prove that it’s serious about dealing positively with issues by supporting the PBP bill.
You can listen back here:
Main image shows houses in Dublin and Richard Boyd barret on the plinth at Leinster House, 12-07-2022. Image: Sean Defoe/Newstalk
