Rent Pressure Zones to be extended across the entire country

Kenneth Fox

Rent Pressure Zones are to be extended to cover the entire country.

Sweeping new changes will be brought to Cabinet for approval on Tuesday after being signed off by the coalition party leaders and senior ministers on Monday night.

Large landlords will also now be redefined to cover anyone with four or more rental properties.

Landlords will also reportedly only be able to reset rents if a tenant voluntarily leaves their home.

As The Irish Times reports, housing advocates had warned the Government that allowing landlords to reset the rent between tenancies would result in many tenancies being terminated by the landlords in order to increase the rents.

That avenue now appears to have been shut off, however, according to three sources familiar with the plans.

The details of the package circulating on Monday night suggested a significant expansion of tenants’ rights, rather than a big win for landlords and investors.

There is also expected to be measures to strengthen protection for tenants, including strong security of tenure and prohibiting “no fault” evictions in the case of large landlords.

It is expected that there will be different rules for small and large landlords, with smaller landlords described as those who have three or fewer rental properties.

There will not be a ban on no-fault evictions for small landlords.

But the details circulating on Monday night were less advantageous to landlords than opposition politicians have been warning about.