All of county Tipperary is to now be included as a Rent Pressure Zone dependent on legislation to be rushed through the Oireachtas this week. The legislation will be known as the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2025 and the Government hopes it will be completed and signed by the President this week.
If approved as proposed the Bill will make any area not currently in a rent pressure zone a RPZ from the day after enactment until 28 February 2026; and will create a two-month extension, until 28 February 2026, to the operation of existing Rent Pressure Zones. As of now no part of county Tipperary is deemed to be a rent pressure zone; all of the county will become an RPZ once the legislation is enacted.
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne says while the rental measures announced have been necessarily complex to respond to different situations in the rental market, the Government wants to provide certainty, clarity and stability for the rental sector including those who rent and those who let their properties. Minister Browne concedes that, except for purpose-built student accommodation, it won’t be possible for students – or other short-term tenants like junior doctors on rotation – to benefit from the special protections from forthcoming rules on ‘rent resets’.
Under the new regulations the rents for new build apartments will not be subject to the current 2% cap but will be linked to inflation and capped by the Consumer Price Index. This applies to new apartment developments commenced on or after 10 June 2025.
Landlords of tenancies created on or after 1 March 2026 will be able to reset the rent levels to market rent between tenancies provided the outgoing tenant has left voluntarily or as a result of the tenant’s breach of their obligations.
Landlords of tenancies created on or after 1 March 2026 will be able to reset the rent levels to market rent at the end of each 6 year tenancy period unless a “no-fault” eviction occurs.
There will be a new distinction between “large” and “small” landlords. Large landlords are those who have four or more tenancies and small landlords are those with three or fewer tenancies. Different termination rules will apply to large and small landlords.
There will be very limited circumstances in which large landlords will be able to end a tenancy where the tenant has complied with their obligations.
