Rent pressure zones for up to 25 areas to be announced today

Rent pressure zones are due to be extended to Galway, parts of Meath, Kildare and Wicklow as Minister for Housing Simon Coveney announces details of up to 25 areas added to the scheme on Thursday.

However Limerick and Waterford are not likely to be included in the extension of the rent pressure zones.

The policy announced for Dublin and Cork city last year is designed to restrict rent in high-pressure areas . It mean landlords can only increase rents by 4 per cent per year for three years in designated areas.

“We always said that the rent pressure zones would be extended outside Dublin and Cork, there was some confusion about this before Christmas,” Mr Coveney told RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke show.

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He said the rent pressure zone designations in Dublin and Cork protect about 150,000 tenancies. The areas being added will “push the figure significantly above 200,000”.

“The reason why we started with Dublin and Cork was because we had the data on the basis of local authority areas.

He said there was more targeted data available now on the basis of electoral areas within local authority areas.

Mr Coveney said many more areas would come into rent pressure zones on a more targeted localised basis.

“In rough speak there needs to be a sustained level of unsustainable rental increases for four of the last six months, there needs to have been at least seven per cent annual rental inflation in rental markets.

“Secondly, it needs to be a high rent in that area, it needs to be above the national average.

“I want to reassure people. This isn’t politicians making designations to be popular or to try and bring home good news to their areas.

Mr Coveney said as part of the process the housing agencies look at the housing market and consult with the local authorities before giving the Minister recommendations for rent pressure zones because of the criteria and the likelihood of qualifying.

"I received that report from the Housing Agency earlier this week and they recommended a whole series of areas that we should like at in Co Cork, in Galway, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow and so on.

“What we’ve done is asked the Residential Tenancies Board to work with the ESRI to get actual data for those areas. I will have that data later on this afternoon.

“You can take it from me that there will be approximately 20 to 25 towns and virtually all of Galway city will be designated and the kind of areas that people expected to qualify and some of the areas that people expected will not qualify.

“The housing agency looked at Waterford city and county. Both Waterford and Limerick are not likely, at this point any way, to get designations because the either don’t meet the rent above the average figure or else they haven’t had the continuous growth for a sustained period.

He said Galway was “ very close to qualifying as a city and actually when the new quarterly figures came in we knew that it was likely to come under the agreed criteria and that’s likely to materialise later today.

He said there were likely to be designations in Co Meath for Laytown, Bettystown area (which includes Slane) and Ratoath, which includes Dunboyne.

“In Wicklow we looked at Bray, Greystones and Wicklow town as local electoral areas, two of the three are likely.

"In Kildare - Celbridge, Leixlip area, the Naas electoral area, Newbridge, Kildare areas. When you add up all of the towns I expect that we will see about 25 towns coming in and almost an entire city in Galway.

He said the assessment process would be ongoing.