Sinn Féin Urge Govt To Introduce Rent Control

The government is being urged to introduce a system of rent control alongside social housing investment in an effort to tackle rising rents and social housing shortages.

Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Dessie Ellis made the call following the release of a new report that claims rents continue to rise, while the number of available rental properties is at a seven year low.

"Dublin rents have increased 14% on this time last year with rents across the state up 11%. In the last three years residential rents have sky rocketed with increases of nearly 40% in the capital," Deputy Ellis said.

"Rent is not affordable and in no way related to the quality of accommodation on offer. It is purely being driven by a recognition by landlords that people are desperate for accommodation and will pay whatever they can even if it is unsustainable or means they will have to go without other essentials.

"We need a suite of measures to address these problems. Firstly we need rent controls to stem the hikes in prices and stop the flow of renters into homelessness. Secondly we need a major investment in social housing to take pressure off the private market and further stabilise rents. The government have announced some building plans but they are simply not enough.

"Finally we need to hold to account bad landlords who profit off poor accommodation which is under-managed, over-crowded or unsafe. A fine it not enough; if a landlord is repeatedly found to be renting substandard accommodation or has failed repeatedly to register their property for tenancies, then strong measures must be taken to punish this behaviour while not affecting the supply of housing."

(MH/CD)