Ireland to link home rents to inflation

Dublin

IRELAND plans to bring in legislation linking residential rents to the rate of inflation, in a bid to curb soaring rental costs, TheSunday Times reported.

Ireland's housing shortage has become a big political issue ahead of elections due in the next six months While the Irish economy is forecast to be the fastest-growing in Europe for the second year running in 2015, house building is at levels last seen in the early 1970s, after a property crash wrecked the construction sector. Rents jumped by 7 per cent in the year to June, data from the Private Residential Tenancies Board showed last week, while rents in Dublin rose by almost 10 per cent in the same period.