Housing Commission Recommends Reforms to RPZs

[Mocame]

According to this morning's Irish Times the leaked Housing Commission report recommends significant reform to rent pressure zones:

Make all rents publicly available, Housing Commission says in report critical of system

Leaked document highly critical of Ireland’s housing market, sharpening focus on issue ahead of elections

www.irishtimes.com

The article says that the HC recommends replacing RPZs with:
" a new system that pegs rent increases to nearby homes of a similar quality should be introduced, according to the report. Rent would not rise more than a set percentage above this level over a specified period, taking into account costs such as management and maintenance, interest rates and household incomes and affordability.

It also argues that the State should “establish a publicly available register of rents being charged”.

The article also mentions that "The report also recommends that the State should “amalgamate regulatory agencies involved in regulating rental accommodation” under a single authority “and strengthen the enforcement powers”.

Three members of the Housing Commission disagreed with this recommendation according to the IT.

 

[T McGibney]

Deckchairs on the Titanic come to mind.

 

[BlackandBlue]

The report also recommends that the State should “amalgamate regulatory agencies involved in regulating rental accommodation” under a single authority “and strengthen the enforcement powers

While in theory this type of structure makes "sense", sadly, far too often the problems only arise after implementation.
The joke about the US Airforce hiring a guard to protect a plane comes to mind.

 

[Bronte]

It also argues that the State should “establish a publicly available register of rents being charged”.

The RTB has this information. Does the Housing Commission not know this. But sure let's create another state quango paid for by landlords to tell us what we already know.

I can tell what rents are by looking at daft or myhome etc.

 

[Bronte]

The article says that the HC recommends replacing RPZs with:

Let's recreate the RPZ with something similar but call it something else.

 

[Bronte]

" a new system that pegs rent increases to nearby homes of a similar quality should be introduced, according to the report. Rent would not rise more than a set percentage above this level over a specified period, taking into account costs such as management and maintenance, interest rates and household incomes and affordability.

Now that's some piece of waffle. Can you imagine how that calculation would work in reality. Unbelievably convoluted and cumbersome. Everybody has a different interest rate, some have no interest, some have mortgages paid off, whose household income? So a Dunnes stores shelf stacked on a 20 hours contract on a low wage would be used to calculate rent versus an executive working in Bank of I? How could that possible work.

Do these people live in the real world.

 

[Bronte]

Deckchairs on the Titanic come to mind.

Yep:

The report found that there is an underlying housing deficit of 256,000 homes in Ireland and recommended that 20 per cent of the housing stock should be composed of social and affordable homes, as well as the establishment of a new Housing Deliver Oversight Executive and of high-yielding Housing Delivery Zones.

 

[Purple]

The main problem is the State's involvement with the construction sector. Bad regulation and oversight, and the fact that it is so easy to object to proposed construction projects, coupled with the usual gross inefficiency that is emblematic of how State bodies operate results in long delays and significant extra costs. This significantly reduces the benefits which usually accrue to companies that increase their efficiency in what should be an open market.

If this report is just proposing moving the deckchairs and the housing sector is the Titanic then the State is the iceberg.