No student deal: Minister says rent hike exemptions would be 'unworkable'
There will be no special provisions to prevent students who do not live in purpose-built student accommodation from facing major rent hikes when they return to college.
New changes to Rent Pressure Zones will permit landlords to reset rents every six years or when a tenant voluntarily exits the tenancy. The move is a departure from existing RPZ rules, where rent increases are linked to the property.
James Lawless, Minister for Higher and Further Education, met with Housing Minister James Browne yesterday to discuss an exemption for purpose-built student accommodation. However, Mr Browne said 'there will be no special exemptions' as they would be unworkable. James Lawless, Minister for Higher and Further Education. Pic: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos
'So there will be no special exemptions in current law for people in that particular situation, and it won't be under the new legislation either,' he said. Minister Browne said he would engage with Mr Lawless around student-specific accommodation, but it would be very difficult outside of this.
The Housing Minister said: 'That's a very different particular set of circumstances, but I think to try and engineer into the legislation that a landlord would then have to identify what that person's role, are they a student, are they a full-time student, part-time student, what qualifies as a student?
'It will be unworkable. And I think it will be unenforceable, so we'll be in those particular sets of circumstances.' Housing Minister James Browne. Pic: Sam Boal/Collins Photo
Mr Browne said he had engaged at length with Attorney General Rossa Fanning on the matter, and the resetting element of the legislation is 'crucial to making this constitutionally viable'.
In response to a question from the Irish Daily Mail, Mr Browne insisted he did not make a mistake by not immediately implementing the national expansion of RPZs.
'We have moved very swiftly on this,' he said. Pressed on whether it was a mistake, Mr Browne replied: 'No.' The Cabinet agreed last week to make the entire country an RPZ, which limits annual rent increases by landlords to 2% annually. Pic: Shutterstock
The measures were initially due to come into effect on March 1, 2026, along with a suite of other changes to the rental market. However, Mr Browne will now bring forward emergency legislation in the Dáil today that will allow for RPZs to be expanded nationwide, once enacted, which could be by Friday.
In December 2016, when then-Housing Minister Simon Coveney announced the introduction of RPZs to cap rents at 4% per year, legislation was introduced and passed that same day.
The delay in introducing the controversial RPZ legislation has provided some landlords with the opportunity to increase rent to market rent on a property if one hadn't been done in the last two years, ahead of it being brought into an RPZ. Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire
In the Dáil, Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik accused the Government of 'chaotic decision-making, U-turns, drip feeds and hasty rewrites of flawed press releases'.
'Anyone watching will be wondering when you're going to take political responsibility for the housing crisis,' she said. 'You're the Taoiseach, you're in government, your party and Fine Gael have effectively governed together for the best part of a decade and yet you are resorting to throwing critiques at the Opposition for not building homes.'
Taoiseach Micheál Martin replied that Ms Bacik 'could have been in government' after the last election, but said she 'didn't have the courage' to do so.
Speaking in the Dáil, Jennifer Whitmore, Social Democrats TD for Wicklow, branded the decision a 'disgrace'. 'The truth is your policy is a shambles and you are making it up as you go along,' she said.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet agreed to bolster the powers and remit of the Land Development Agency to allow it to build more private housing and enable it to buy private land outside the limited scope it is permitted to do so at present.
When the LDA was established in 2018, it had a mandate to build private housing. However, after major political opposition, its remit was modified to only allow it to build public housing on public land.
The Cabinet also agreed to exempt rent generated from cost-rental homes from the existing corporation tax. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe confirmed that this would only apply to the LDA and not private developers, despite the Government wanting more players to deliver cost-rental housing.
A review of Compulsory Purchase Order legislation is also underway as part of a bid to give the LDA greater power to obtain land for development.
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