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Northern Ireland Housing Executive to increase rents by 2.7%
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) will increase rents by 2.7% from April.
The increase equates to £2.16 per week and will bring the average rent for a home to £82.05 a week, excluding rates.
It is significantly down from last year, when rents went up by 7.7%, an average of £5.72 per week.
The 85,000-home landlord manages the majority of the social homes in Northern Ireland. The remaining 60,000 are managed by housing associations.
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Grainia Long, chief executive of the Housing Executive, said rent pays for “essential high-quality customer and neighbourhood services, as well as ongoing maintenance of our homes and significant improvement work”.
“The increase goes straight back into our houses and our tenant services,” she added.
Ms Long said the NIHE plans to spend over £287m next year in improving and maintaining its homes, an increase of £37m on last year, with more than a quarter of our homes being upgraded during work programmes.
She added: “Importantly, £49m of this will go to installing new energy-efficient measures in over 10,000 of our homes.
“We understand that any increase in rent may be challenging for some tenants and we have a dedicated financial inclusion team to ensure we have right support in place.
“We encourage any tenant who is having difficulty paying their rent to contact us immediately for assistance and advice.
“We would also reassure tenants that we will only take legal action in circumstances where rent is not fully paid and a tenant refuses to engage with us.
“We have included details of how to get in touch and the help available in our letter to each tenant.”
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