Carrigaline meets rent pressure zone rules as 'nuisance loophole' ended

A Cork TD has welcomed the news that Carrigaline local electoral area (LEA) now meets the criteria for Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) designation.

Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire had last summer welcomed a vote by the Dáil in favour of legislation that would bring an end to the loophole that existed which had kept Carrigaline renters out of an RPZ.

Mr Ó Laoghaire has now welcomed that the Government and the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) have “finally relented” and made all of Carrigaline LEA an RPZ, saying that before this, there were no limits on rent increases for tenants in Crosshaven, Ballygarvan, and the parts of Carrigaline south of the Owenabue River.

“A landlord could literally double the rent, and there was nothing that could be done,” he said.

“This was caused by a loophole in legislation that meant half the electoral area was designated and half wasn’t. Our local councillor Eoghan Fahy and I have been pushing since 2019 to get this fixed, including bringing forward legislation that passed the second stage in 2023.

“Now the whole area, and indeed the whole metropolitan area of Cork, is now covered, and this nuisance loophole has been ended.

“That said, while this is a welcome step in closing a bizarre loophole, ultimately the Government needs to ban rent increases and reduce the costs to renters by giving a month’s rent back in their pocket.”

The recently published RTB Q1 2024 Rent Index showed that both Carrigaline LEA in County Cork and the administrative area of Galway County had recorded four consecutive quarters of new tenancy rent inflation above 7%.

As the rent in both areas in Q1 2024 was above the appropriate standardised average rent for the area, this means they now meet the criteria to be designated as a RPZ.

In addition to the Rent Index, the RTB asked the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) to conduct an additional ‘Individual Property Level Analysis’ to track changes in rent for the same individual properties over time to inspect if landlords are complying with the rules.

The preliminary findings show that nationally, 74% of sitting tenants tracked between Q2 2022 and Q1 2024 experienced an annual rent increase of 2% or less, within RPZ limits.

Director of the RTB, Rosemary Steen, said that the RTB will be communicating with these landlords who may have breached RPZ rules as a priority, to bring them back into compliance.