PRIVATE RENTS LAST month hit a new peak nationwide, topping even the nosebleed prices of the Celtic Tiger property bubble.
Figures from the CSO, included in the Consumer Price Index, showed rental costs were now more than 35% higher than their bottom point in December 2010.
The latest increase, from August to September, was enough to tip rents over the previous highs of early 2008, before the property bubble burst and accommodation prices started a massive downward plunge.
Goodbody chief economist Dermot O’Leary, who highlighted the “significant milestone” in a briefing note today, said the figures were “likely to embolden those pushing for an introduction of rent controls”.
That policy environment is not, however, conducive to the attraction of investment in new rental supply,” he said.
A housing crisis
The Simon Community recently revealed there were over 5,000 adults and children in emergency accomodation, a 76% increase since January amid a deepening housing crisis.
It called on the government to speed up its plans for ”rent certainty”, the foreshadowed measures which Environment Minister Alan Kelly has been careful not to label as rent controls.
The rules would likely tie rent increases to the consumer price index with above-trend rent hikes only allowed when properties had been upgraded.
Meanwhile, the latest quarterly rent index from the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) showed Dublin rents were up 9.2% over the previous year while outside the capital prices rose 5.8%.
At the same time, the Housing Agency has highlighted that there was already an undersupply of more than 4,000 homes across Ireland last year with another 55,000 new properties needed between 2015 and 2018.
First published 11.27am
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