Rent Pressure Zones Are Gone: Ireland's National Rent Cap Explained (2026)

If you are searching for information on Rent Pressure Zones, the most important thing to know is that they no longer exist. The RPZ system that shaped Irish renting for almost a decade was dismantled on 28 February 2026. From 1 March 2026, a single national rent-control system covers every private residential tenancy and student-specific tenancy in the Republic of Ireland.

The core of the new system is simple: rent can rise at most once every 12 months, and never by more than 2% a year or the rate of Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation, whichever is lower. This page explains how the change happened, exactly how the national cap works, when a landlord can lawfully reset rent to the market level, and what the end of the RPZ era means for tenants who still think in terms of zones.

Information last verified on 20 July 2026. This page is general legal information for the Republic of Ireland, not legal advice.

What happened to Rent Pressure Zones?

Two Acts of the Oireachtas, passed roughly eight months apart, ended the RPZ era.

The first was the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2025 (No. 5 of 2025), signed on 19 June 2025. It was a bridge measure: it deemed every part of the State that was not already a Rent Pressure Zone to be one, expressly for a period ending on 28 February 2026. Overnight, more than 40,000 tenancies that had sat outside RPZ protection came under the rent cap.

The second was the Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026 (No. 3 of 2026), signed on 24 February 2026. Its repeal of the RPZ sections was not automatic: it needed a commencement order, and that order, the Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026 (Commencement) Order 2026 (S.I. No. 67 of 2026), brought the repeal and the new rent-setting rules into operation on 1 March 2026, with a first tranche of provisions commencing on 28 February 2026. This is the Act that dismantled the RPZ framework and replaced it with one national rent-control system covering the whole country. The same Act created the new 6-year Tenancy of Minimum Duration and rewrote the rules on when a landlord can end a tenancy.

The label 'Rent Pressure Zone' now describes a closed chapter of Irish housing law. The protections did not disappear on 1 March 2026. They became universal.

A short history of the RPZ system

Rent Pressure Zones arrived in December 2016 under the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016. Designation was address-based: if your dwelling sat inside a designated zone, rent increases were capped, and if it sat outside, they were not.

The June 2025 extension mattered because it swept the last group of unprotected renters into rent control. The March 2026 replacement mattered because it made the cap permanent, national, and no longer dependent on where a dwelling happens to sit on a map.

How the national rent cap works from 1 March 2026

The national system applies to new and existing tenancies alike: private rented dwellings, including tenancies supported by HAP or RAS, and student-specific accommodation. The rent rules do not apply to approved housing body or cost-rental homes, and they operate differently in some respects for student accommodation.

The cap has two limbs:

• Rent can be reviewed at most once every 12 months for most tenancies.
• At each review, the increase cannot exceed 2% a year or CPI inflation, whichever is lower.

Because the lower figure always wins, 2% is a hard ceiling for most homes, not a default rise. Nothing obliges a landlord to increase the rent at all.

The 2% runs per year elapsed, not per review. The permitted percentage is 2% for each year that has passed since the rent was last set, with a proportionate figure for any part-year. So a review one year after the last setting is capped at 2%, but if the rent has not been touched for two years the 2% limb allows roughly 4%, and for 18 months roughly 3%. The CPI limb is measured over the same period, and the lower of the two still wins.

Market rent is an absolute ceiling. Whatever the cap calculation produces, the rent under a tenancy cannot lawfully exceed the market rent for the dwelling. If comparable homes let for less than your capped figure, the capped figure is not a floor.

The inflation index changed with the reform

Before 1 March 2026, the RPZ formula tracked the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). From 1 March 2026 the reference index is the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and it applies to all tenancies, new and existing. Any rent calculator or guide that still mentions HICP predates the current law.

Which homes escape the 2% ceiling?

There is one significant carve-out, and most commentary misses it. Newly built apartments and new student-specific accommodation whose commencement notice was lodged on or after 10 June 2025 are capped by CPI inflation only, with no 2% ceiling.

The same carve-out also reaches two conversion routes: an extension that permanently increases the floor area of an apartment complex by at least 25%, and a change of use that creates the complex where it takes in at least 25% of the previous floor area. It does not extend to houses.

This exemption was created by the 2025 Act to encourage new supply, and it survived into the national system. Only the 2% limb is switched off, so qualifying developments still have to stay within CPI inflation. In practice it means rents there can rise faster than 2% in a high-inflation year, but they remain index-linked rather than uncapped.

How often can the rent actually be reviewed?

The standard cycle is once every 12 months. There is one transitional wrinkle worth knowing about.

If your tenancy already existed when your area became a Rent Pressure Zone within the previous 2 years, the first review can only take place 24 months after the tenancy began or after the rent was last set. Reviews after that first one revert to the normal 12-month cycle.

This matters mostly for the 40,000 or so tenancies brought into rent control by the June 2025 nationwide extension. Many of those renters will face their first capped review during 2027, not before.

Can my landlord raise the rent in 2026? The notice rules

Yes, but only within the cap and only by following a strict procedure. From 1 March 2026 a landlord who wants to review the rent must:

• complete the RTB notice of rent review form;
• send it to the tenant and to the RTB on the same day;
• give at least 90 days' notice before the new rent takes effect;
• update the tenancy registration with the new rent within 1 month.

A notice that misses any of these steps is invalid. In particular, a notice that was never copied to the RTB, or that gives less than 90 days, does not bind the tenant.

How to dispute a rent increase

If you believe an increase breaches the cap or the notice rules, you can refer a dispute to the RTB. The window runs to the later of two dates: the date the new rent is due to start, or 28 days after you received the notice. Because the notice must give at least 90 days, the start date is almost always the later one, so in practice you usually have around 90 days rather than 28. There is no time limit at all if the notice is invalid.

Keep paying your current rent while the dispute runs. Our tenant rights in Ireland overview explains the RTB dispute routes and their fees.

When can rent be reset to market value?

This is the question that decides how much the cap is really worth, and the 2026 Act answers it tightly.

For tenancies created before 1 March 2026, the rent can never be reset to market level during the tenancy. A sale of the dwelling or a change of landlord makes no difference.

For tenancies created on or after 1 March 2026, a landlord may set a market rent only in defined windows:

• it is a first-time tenancy in the dwelling;
• the previous tenant left voluntarily;
• the previous tenancy was terminated for tenant breach;
• the dwelling was no longer suited to the household's needs;
• the end of a 6-year Tenancy of Minimum Duration;
• after 3 years, for student-specific accommodation;
• the dwelling was not let at any time in the previous 2 years;
• a protected structure that was not let in the previous 1 year;
• a substantial change in the nature of the dwelling;
• the previous tenancy ended for substantial renovation, the dwelling has genuinely undergone that substantial change, and the landlord has offered it back to the previous tenant.

The deliberate gap in that list is the anti-flip rule. Where the previous tenancy was ended because the landlord intended to sell, needed the dwelling for themselves or a family member, or planned to change its use, the rent for a new tenancy created within two years of that termination cannot be reset to market. The old capped rent carries over instead.

The bar lasts two years, not forever. A landlord who ends a tenancy on one of those grounds and then leaves the dwelling unlet for two full years can lawfully set a market rent afterwards, because a dwelling with no tenancy for two years is itself a reset window (one year for a protected structure). Student-specific accommodation is treated differently again. The termination grounds themselves, including the new smaller and larger landlord rules and the tenant's right to be offered the home back, are covered in our eviction rules guide.

The reset procedure

A landlord relying on a reset window must notify the tenant and the RTB on the same day, at least 90 days before the new rent takes effect. The notice must show the previous tenancy's rent, its date and RTB registration number, the calculation used, and 3 comparable properties drawn from the new public RTB rent register, matched by area, floor area, number of bedrooms and BER rating.

Breaking the reset rules is an offence, and the RTB can investigate and sanction the landlord.

What this means if you are still searching for 'rent pressure zones'

Every RPZ map, address checker and zone list published before March 2026 is now obsolete. Your protection no longer depends on your Eircode.

The practical rules for any tenant in Ireland in 2026 are the ones above: a 12-month review cycle, a cap at the lower of 2% or CPI, a 90-day notice served on you and the RTB on the same day, and tightly policed market resets. Termination notice periods are a separate topic, unchanged by the reform. You can check yours in seconds with our Ireland notice period calculator or read the full notice of termination guide.

For the rest of the renting picture, from deposits to minimum standards, start at our Ireland law hub.

Frequently asked questions

This page is general information about Irish rent law, not legal advice. Rent disputes are decided by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), and an unusual or high-value case may need advice from a solicitor. If you have received a rent review or reset notice, act well before the referral window closes, which is the later of the new rent's start date and 28 days after you received the notice.