Protection from unreasonable rent increases for tenants in Cobh – Stanton

Fine Gael Cork East TD, David Stanton, has welcomed the designation of Cobh as a Rent Pressure Zone under the Government’s rental strategy, saying this will protect tenants from unreasonable rent increases.

“The designation of Cobh as a Rent Pressure Zone by my colleague the Minister for Housing, Simon Coveney, is really welcome news. This will help protect tenants in Cobh from unreasonable rent increases, as it has done in Dublin and Cork cities where the scheme began, and in the Ballincollig-Carrigaline area which was added to the scheme earlier this year.

“At the initial announcement of the Government’s Rental Strategy, Dublin and Cork cities were initially designated Rent Pressure Zones as these areas were experiencing continuous unsustainable rental increases for 4 of the previous 6 months, and the rents there were above the national average. Minister Coveney gave a commitment to look at other areas of the country at the time.

“This was done on the basis of data gathering and consultation with Local Authorities. The Housing Agency was instructed to examine the parts of the country that met the qualifying criteria and then Ballincollig-Carrigaline was added in January. Now Cobh has been designated a Rent Pressure Zone on this basis also.

“Fine Gael in Government is determined to ease the pressure on the rental market and this strategy balances the needs of landlords and tenants in doing so. Over the medium term the Government is increasing the supply of housing to ease pressure on the rental market. Yesterday for example we announced just over €45 million in funding to deliver the infrastructure that will support the building of 3,000 new homes in Cork, 520 of which will be in Midleton.

“However this short term measure to make Cobh one of the new Rent Pressure Zones, will prevent hugely inflated rent increases will really protect tenants here in Cobh.”