18 November 2015, 7am
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Anti Austerity Alliance councillor Mick Barry will launch a new initiative this morning aimed at highlighting what he describes as “rent scandals” in Cork.
The initiative takes the form of a new facebook page titled Rent Rip Off Cork which will invite tenants to send in stories of exploitation by landlords and which will highlight several such stories each week. The page goes live at 10 o’clock this morning.
Cllr Barry said this morning: “We are particularly interested this week in hearing from tenants who have had their rents jacked up in the runup to the Government’s new rent laws being agreed. A lot of opportunistic landlords rushed in to shove up rents before the new laws came in and we want to know who they are.”
Cllr Barry and the Anti Austerity Alliance recently organised a series of protests to highlight rent scandals in the Cork area including a picket of an apartment complex that was advertising one-bedroom apartments for 1200 euro per month.
Cllr Barry’s announcement comes the day after Daft announced that rents in Cork city had risen 13.5% in the last year and by more than double the national average in the last 3 months alone (7% as compared to 3.2% nationally). Rents rose in Cork county in the last year by 10.2%.
The average rent in Cork city currently stands at 950 euro per month with the equivalent figure for the county being 691 euro.
