Student Accommodation
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

I have just one point, and I know the Deputy has engaged in good faith, as he always does. I have to correct one statement he made, and perhaps it is just not widely known. Landlords actually cannot reset rents between tenancies and that is a very deliberate thing I inserted to the legislation following engagement with my colleague the Minister, Deputy Browne. In terms of regulation, overall, student tenancies are subject to the same base rules as any other residential property in the State or any other rental, with the additional safeguard that in a student tenancy the rent cannot be reset when tenants move into and move out of purpose-built student accommodation. This is for the very simple reason that the new RPZ rules allow a reset when a tenant vacates, or after a period of six years, whichever comes sooner. In the case of student accommodation, the students vacate naturally most summers, if not every summer, and I thought it would be unfair on the students to impose an additional rent reset on them every summer. That would make the properties very expensive indeed. I intervened and negotiated with the Minister, Deputy Browne, who in fairness was happy to accede to that request and that protection is contained in the legislation now.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-23