LAST UPDATE | 12 May 2022
THE COST OF rent nationwide has continued to rise in the first quarter of 2022, with average rents increasing by over 11% compared to early 2021, the latest Daft.ie Rental Report has shown.
It comes as the number of rental properties on the market has dropped to the lowest number ever recorded by Daft, with just 851 properties listed nationwide.
It continues the decrease in available rental properties seen in recent months, with the number of available homes decreasing steadily since early 2021 when there were 3,600 rental properties available.
This fall in availability is most stark in Dublin, where there has been an 81% drop in rental properties compared to early 2021, with only 462 homes listed on 1 May.
Outside the capital, there was a 66% drop in the number of rental properties available, with just 389 listed on 1 May.
Report author Associate Professor Ronan Lyons of Trinity College Dublin said that the number of homes available may be underestimated, as it only takes into account properties listed on Daft.ie.
With less properties available, the average rent has also increased by 11.7% since the first three months of 2021, with rents now costing on average €1,567 a month nationwide.
According to the report, this is the highest year-on-year increase in rents since late 2016.
The average rent in Dublin is now €2,202 a month, which is up 10.6% compared to the same period in 2021.
Other cities are also seeing a sharp increase, with Cork rents increasing by 10.2% year-on-year, Galway rents by 13.8%, Limerick rents by 15.5% and Waterford rents by 16.2%.
The highest overall increase was seen in Leitrim, where average rents increased by 24.8%.
The cheapest rents in the country are in Donegal, where the average rent is €857 a month while the most expensive rents are in South County Dublin at an average of €2,314 a month.
The report also analysed the rent increases for current tenants – people who haven’t moved into new accommodation and are already leasing a property – with an average increase of 3.4% each year over the last 10 years.
These increases are seen more by sitting tenants in Dublin compared to tenants in other parts of the country.
Commenting on the report, Lyons said that there is a high demand for rental accommodation in Ireland while there is an inadequate supply of housing to meet that demand.
“While strong demand for housing reflects underlying economic health, it becomes a challenge when there is inadequate supply to meet it,” said Lyons.
“In Ireland’s case, the economy has suffered from an under-provision of new rental accommodation for over a decade. As a result, market rents have doubled and, as shown in this latest report, rental homes have become unbelievably scarce.”
Lyons adds that policymakers must allow the conditions for “tens of thousands” of new rental – both market and social – to be built in the coming years.
Reaction
Reacting to the report, Sinn Féin’s Spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin, said that the Government’s 2% rent cap was not working and called for a full rent freeze needed to be implemented.
“The government’s 2% rent cap is clearly not working,” said Ó Broin.
“We need a ban on rent increases on all existing and new tenancies, and we need government to put money back in renters’ pockets through a refundable tax credit worth a month’s rent.”
He called for additional affordable cost-rental housing to be delivered at scale, saying that at least 4,000 units a year were needed to meet the demand.
A spokesperson for Threshold, a charity which focuses on people’s rights to housing, said that the level of rent increases were due to an overreliance on the private sector to deliver housing.
“The rent increases reported in the Daft Q1 2022 rent report are the culmination of successive housing policies which have been over reliant on the private sector to provide housing,” said the spokesperson.
They called for more immediate action to “relieve the burden on renters”, but did say that the Government’s 10-year housing plan may bring relief in the long-term.
The spokesperson called for more immediate action on placing a right to housing within the constitution, calling it encouraging to see the Housing Commission begin its work.
The full Daft.ie report is available to read here.
Note: Journal Media Ltd has shareholders in common with Daft.ie publisher Distilled Media Group.
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