Ireland plans to bring in legislation linking residential rents to the rate of inflation, in a bid to curb soaring rental costs, the Sunday Times reported. Ireland's housing shortage has become a major 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 percent in the year to June, data from the Private Residential Tenancies Board showed last week, while rents in Dublin rose by almost 10 percent in the same period.