Dublin South West Sinn F\u00e9in TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has said that the high cost of rent is increasingly becoming an election issue and is being raised with him on the doorsteps. He stated that many working individuals and their families are being forced out of accommodation because of the rising rents.<\/p>\n
Crowe said that the pattern of upward rents in Dublin and across the country was continuing, but workers\u2019 wages and incomes are nowhere near matching these increases.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cRents for accommodation in the private sector continue to rise every couple of months, but wages for most workers are not increasing at anywhere near the same rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe latest data from the Private Tenancy Board shows that monthly rents for private sector accommodation across the country were 8.6% higher in September 2015 when compared with September 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross the State rents for houses were 7.7% higher, while apartment rents were 9% higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the course of the 12 month period this represents a monthly increase of \u20ac120 for those renting a house in Dublin and an increase of \u20ac96 every month for those renting an apartment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncreasingly I am hearing stories from people who are privately renting, have nothing more to give, and are now facing possible eviction. Small increases in salaries in some sectors are not matching the rent rises.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has certainly become an election issue and not just with those trapped in the rented sector, or from parents who are helping to subsidise their children\u2019s housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people want a fair and inclusive society and accommodation is an integral part of this. Rents are continuing to rise while the current government\u2019s belated half measures are clearly not delivering.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Crowe continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cVocal opponents of rent certainty have highlighted the lack of housing supply as a key issue to rising rents. It is true that the supply of appropriate, affordable, and quality housing is extremely important, but supply alone will not solve all the problems of rapidly rising rents and it won\u2019t automatically reduce the number of homeless households.<\/p>\n
\u201cRent certainty is key part of the solution, but again not the solution on its own. However, without rent certainty there can be no solution to the emergency that is being caused by a broken rental system.<\/p>\n
\u201cLimiting rent increases to once every two years only delays the problem and does not address the fact that many tenants will have their rent increased before these rules are in place. It also ignores the fact that rents have already risen by a whopping 35% over a short period.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe urgently need a package of rent control measures which will set the standard rates for size and location of accommodation. This will enable existing tenants to review their rent rates, while forcing landlords to set fair and reasonable rents on new leases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also need to limit rent changes to the rate of inflation and the consumer price index to ensure their overall affordability and stability into the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to introduce some sort of rent controls to stem the hikes in prices and stop the steady flow of renters into homelessness.\u00a0 We also need a major investment in social housing to take pressure off the private market and further stabilise rents.<\/p>\n
\u201cSinn F\u00e9in, in our Better for Housing costed policy paper, have detailed how in government we will do this and address the housing crisis created by successive Fianna F\u00e1il, Fine Gael and Labour governments.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dublin South West Sinn F\u00e9in TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has said that the high cost of rent is increasingly becoming an election issue and is being raised with him on the doorsteps. He stated that many working individuals and their families are being forced out of accommodation because of the rising rents. Crowe said that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2473"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2475,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2473\/revisions\/2475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}