SINN Féin Kerry County Councillor Pa Daly has said that the latest Daft.ie rent report published today is further evidence that government policy is failing renters.
The data shows a 13.6% increase in rents in Kerry between the second quarter in 2018 and Q2 this year. The average rent in the county is now €836.
Cllr Daly said there needs to be an immediate rent freeze on current and new tenancies and a renter’s tax credit. He says there also needs to be an urgent roll out of affordable cost rental homes.
The Sinn Féin Councillor said: “The Daft.ie rent report shows that asking rents are continuing to rise to increasingly unaffordable levels for most people.
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“The average new rent across the state is now at an all-time high of €1,391. The number of available properties is the lowest since Daft.ie reports started in 2006 with just 2,700 home available for rent.
“Every single county recorded rent increases above the Rent Pressure Zone cap of 4%. Thirteen counties had double digit rental inflation, including Kerry, which saw a 13.6% increase, one of the highest increases in the state.
“The Government’s strategy for the rental sector is not working. The Rent Pressure Zones offer no protections for new renters.
“People want to live in good quality, affordable apartments near work and good public transport links.
“We need to see a rent freeze for existing and new tenancies introduced along with a renters tax credit worth a month’s rent.
“The Government must demonstrate its commitment to affordable cost rental accommodation by Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies.
“While the Daft.ie report today references the Build to rent developments in the pipeline, it won’t make any difference to most people’s lives unless the homes are affordable, which they won’t be if rents continue to rise.”
Rent Pressure Zones, affordable cost rental homes or rent freezes is not a solution.
This is a more left wing socialist political correct virtue signalling to attract disenfranchised sheeple voters to SINN Féin and nothing else.
Correct me if I am wrong but if SINN Féin cared about the 10,000 homeless of our nation and were a nationalist party, they would oppose the endless steam of non EU economic migrants entering the state and being housed in direct provision centres and fast traced into public housing at the expense of the native population.
In fact, eight EU member states, including Ireland, have agreed to actively participate in a new “solidarity mechanism” to resettle migrants and refugees across the European Union:
https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0723/1064652-migrants/
The Irish state of play is purposely not to build or if forced to build, do it at a snails pace to achieve higher house values and fully rebalance the negative equity of mortgage books of the state bailed out banks.
Also, the increasing high rents that will of course inevitably result the housing markets rental sector is kept safe from any possible default by providing a lavish guaranteed and inflated rental yield.
It’s literally a win, win, win for the government bank as a major shareholder, residential property owner and investor.
The only real permanent solution is to build social housing estates and it will probably have to be done sooner or later by the state not the private sector due to the extent the government artificially manipulated and protracted the situation.
SINN Féin Kerry County Councillor Pa Daly, might as well be a member of the Labour party in the UK!
I only wish you were.