Tenancy terminations biggest concern for Irish renters according to charity's latest report

National housing charity Threshold has released its annual report for 2024, showing that it supported almost 20,000  households in Ireland last year.

The top query received by the charity was in relation to tenancy terminations. 

Threshold remains cautious about the proposed market rent resets between tenancies, and its potential to lead to inadvertently escalating rents.

The charity’s Annual Report 2024 shows that during 2024 Threshold provided housing support to over 19,400 households in vulnerable situations, representing 23,315 adults and 16,083 children in rental accommodation. 

It also opened 14,514 new cases during the year, a significant increase on 2023 when 12,000 new cases were opened.

It closed 6,327 cases where renters had been at risk of homelessness, preventing 4,262 of these households – or 67% – from entering homelessness services.

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5,669 new cases were created via email queries, 4,752 webchat queries were held between January and September 2024, and 780 video consultations were booked during January and October last year. 

Threshold continues to engage in on-going service delivery improvements, and this continued to be a key focus for the charity in 2024.

Last autumn, it undertook a system-wide review and improvement of its independent, confidential and free helpline service based on call analysis and feedback from clients.

As a result of feedback, Threshold significantly enhanced its telephone system and call-handling service to ensure highest-standard of service for clients and staff alike, including creating a roster for helpline advisers, and new group and one-to-one coaching for staff.

"Our goal is to ensure that clients, many of whom are navigating stressful situations such as disputes with landlords or the threat of losing their rental homes, receive the best possible support. Our commitment is to deliver timely, high-quality support to every client navigating the stress of housing precarity and strengthen our advocacy efforts on behalf of those in the private rental sector," Chairperson of Threshold, Oliver Holt, said. 

"We also made significant strides in supporting access to tenant-in-situ schemes, allowing families to remain in their rented homes while enabling landlords to sell their properties to local authorities or Approved Housing Bodies," Threshold CEO, John-Mark McCafferty, added.