Three housing proposals, including RPZ extension, to go to Cabinet

Three housing proposals, including draft laws to extend rent controls nationwide, are to go to Cabinet on Tuesday.

The Government had flagged that emergency legislation would be brought forward this week to quickly introduce rent caps to a fifth of tenancies not already covered.

It is expected that the rent controls will be extended to around a dozen counties where they are not already in place by the summer.

Two other measures will also be brought to Cabinet by Housing Minister James Browne.

Former HSE chief executive Paul Reid is to be named as chairman of An Coimisiun Pleanala, which will replace An Bord Pleanala, in a memo to establish the body that is to be brought to Cabinet.

It is understood that the overhaul of the State’s planning authority aims to provide more certain timelines for planning decisions as well as a “cultural reset”.

The third measure will see Mr Browne ask Cabinet to agree to expand the role of the Land Development Agency to enable it to secure additional housing supply.

This will enable it to activate urban brownfield sites and allow for better land transfer powers when it comes to underused State lands, it is understood.

The housing and planning measures come a week after the Government announced a swathe of rent and tenancy reforms.

Mr Browne, who admitted that rents in Ireland are “way too high”, said the measures would give renters “greater certainty” and would attract new investment in rental accommodation.

They included the extension nationwide of the rent pressure zone (RPZ) system – areas of high demand where rent increases are capped at inflation or 2%, whichever is lower.

Rent increases in new developments will be capped only by inflation in an attempt to boost Ireland’s apartment supply, Mr Browne said.

Other rental reforms will kick in from March 1 2026: the offer of six-year-minimum rolling tenancies and a ban on no-fault evictions for large landlords, defined as having four or more tenancies.

The opposition has criticised the proposals as “a recipe for rocketing rents”, particularly a measure that sees rents “reset” to the market rate when a tenant voluntarily leaves a six-year-minimum tenancy.

A joint-opposition motion on housing and homelessness, which will be voted on on Tuesday, calls for the introduction of a no-fault eviction ban and greater use of compulsory purchase orders to “bring empty homes back into use”.

The motion is being proposed by Sinn Fein, Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit, the Green Party and Independents.

A Raise the Roof protest will be held outside Leinster House to coincide with the opposition motion.