Allowing rent resets when a home becomes vacant, along with greater opportunities for maintenance and improvements to be recouped, represents the best way to resolve issues in the rental market
A system of reference rents is not the best solution to Ireland's rental market challenges. While the Housing Commission report recommends reforming rent pressure zones (RPZs) with a reference rent system, commissioners agreed that certainty should be provided to tenants, and the best way forward would be legislative and regulatory reforms to make the private rental sector more attractive to both renters and landlords, including allowing rents to revert to market rates after a tenancy ends and enabling landlords to recoup maintenance and improvement costs. The report's recommendations also emphasize increasing housing supply across all sectors and raise concerns that reference rents, due to existing rent controls, would be difficult to ascertain and could negatively impact supply, ultimately raising rents for new tenants.
