Residential Tenancies Reform 2025: Latest Developments

Introduction

Back in June, the Government approved new policies aimed at strengthening rent control and tenancy protection for new residential tenancies created from 1 March 2026.

On 4 November, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage provided more detail on these forthcoming rental market reforms.

Types of Tenancies

The new rules will apply to private rented housing including accommodation let under the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme and the Rental Accommodation Scheme, student specific accommodation, Approved Housing Body (“AHB”) and Cost Rental (“CREL”) tenancies. They will not apply to local authority tenancies or where a renter shares the property with the owner.

Tenancies of Minimum Duration

To offer greater protection to tenants, what will be known as tenancies of minimum duration (“TMDs”) will be introduced for new tenancies created on or after 1 March 2026.

Once a tenant is in place for 6 months, they will receive a TMD. These TMDs are rolling 6-year tenancies designed to ensure a tenant will not receive a notice of termination to end the tenancy except in much more limited circumstances than is currently the case and depending on the “size” of their landlord.

As highlighted in our previous article, Residential Tenancies Reform 2025: Striking the Right Balance, there will be two classes of landlord: larger landlords with four or more tenancies and smaller landlords with 3 or fewer tenancies.

Proposed New Rules

The proposed new rules will require larger landlords to provide rolling 6-year TMDs. These tenancies can only be ended for specific reasons which are still to be confirmed but will likely include a breach of tenant obligations or if the property is no longer suitable for renting. Larger landlords will no longer be able to terminate a tenancy just because they want to sell the property, move in themselves or allow a family member to do so or change the use of the property as they can do under the current rules. However, if a tenant leaves of their own accord, the landlord may use the property as they wish.

Smaller landlords must also provide rolling 6-year TMDs but will have a wider set of circumstances where they can end the tenancy during the 6-year TMD including hardship, homelessness, requiring it for an immediate family member, returning from abroad, breach of tenant obligations or if the property no longer suitable. Also, at the end of each 6-year TMD, smaller landlords may also end a tenancy for broader reasons such as the sale or renovation/refurbishment of the property, landlord or family member use or change of use.

All landlords will be able to sell their rented property with the tenant still living in the dwelling at any time and can also sell the property with vacant possession when a tenant has left of their own choice. Smaller landlords may choose to sell their property at the end of each 6-year TMD for a limited time (to be confirmed) before the property rolls into a further 6-year TMD. Smaller landlords may also choose to sell their property with vacant possession in limited circumstances (again to be confirmed) due to financial hardship.

Tenants can end their tenancy at any time by giving written notice with the required notice period. They won’t be tied to a 6-year contract. Tenant notice periods vary from 28 days to 112 days, depending on how long they have been in the tenancy.

Proposed New Rent Increase Rules

Little additional detail has been released about the changes proposed in June to rent increase rules. The broad scope of these remain that from 1 March 2026, there will be nationwide rent control and rent increases will be linked to inflation according to the Consumer Price Index (“CPI”) to be capped at 2% in times of high inflation.

Newly built apartments and student specific accommodation (commenced from 10 June 2025) will not be subject to the 2% cap and their increases will follow CPI only. In addition, neither AHB nor Cost Rental tenancies will be subject to these rules as they have separate stand-alone rules for rent setting.

Rent resets will be allowed when:

• A tenant leaves voluntarily

• A tenant breaches their obligations

• The home no longer meets the tenant’s needs or

• At the end of each 6-year TMD

Resetting rents won’t be allowed after no fault evictions with the aim of preventing landlords from evicting tenants to increase the rent.

Student Specific Accommodation

As student tenancies / licences in student specific accommodation generally change annually, the Department have confirmed that the new rent controls will be tailored to suit how they operate. The current proposal is that the rent restriction will apply to all student specific accommodation licences for the first three years of the new national rent control system and that student specific accommodation providers will then be allowed to reset rents to market value and again after every three-year period that follows while the property continues to operate as student specific accommodation.

Existing Tenancies Carve Out

The Department has also clarified that these new rules will only apply to new tenancies which begin after 1 March 2026. Existing tenancies will continue to follow the rules which are currently in place. The Department has also clarified that, in relation to existing tenancies, if some of the tenants change but others remain on the lease, this will not be treated as a new tenancy and the “old” rules will continue to apply to the tenancy.

Conclusion

This recent announcement has provided more clarity with regard to the rent control and tenancy protection regime to be introduced next year but much of the detail regarding TMDs, particularly with regard to smaller landlords, and in relation to enforcement are awaited.

With less than four months to the proposed commencement of the new regime, it is to be hoped that full details will be published shortly.

Further Information

For further details about the proposed residential rental reforms or any Housing matter, please contact Partners Paul McCutcheon or Greg Flanagan in our Property Team.