Ireland abandons ban on upwards-only rent reviews
Published: 07 December, 2011
2012 Budget signals end of controversial move to rewrite existing leases
In his budget speech Ireland’s Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, confirmed that the Fine Gael-led government would not be complying with its election pledge to intervene in existing commercial leases to strike out upwards-only rent review clauses.
Despite months of drafting by civil servants, the proposed legislation proved to be impossible to reconcile with property rights enshrined in the Irish constitution, and raised the threat of massive compensation claims by landlords.
At the same time Minister Noonan announced that stamp duty on commercial property transactions would drop from 6% per cent to 2 per cent.
Both announcements are likely to have the effect of freeing up the Irish investment market, which has been frozen by uncertainty.
