THERE HAS BEEN a slight rise in rents nationwide in the third quarter of 2010, according to the latest report from the property website Daft.ie.

Rents rose by 0.3 per cent during the third quarter, and the average rent nationwide now stands at €840.

With rents also rising in the first quarter of the year, it means that rents in October were 2 per cent lower on last year and 27 per cent below the peak.

Economist Ronan Lyons said that this was an encouraging sign for the ‘real’ economy. He said:

Indications that rents are levelling off reflects a better balance between supply on the market and demand. Indeed, in the cities, the fall is closer to a half.

While some parts of the country still look over-stocked, what is sitting on the Dublin market largely matches the number of properties traded in a given month, a sign that the market is currently in balance.

In Dublin city centre and the north city area, rents rose 0.9 per cent between July and October. In the same period in Cork rents rose by 0.4 per cent and 3.2 per cent in Galway, reflecting seasonal demand.

In Limerick and Waterford, there was an increase of close to 1 per cent. Outside the main cities, however, rents typically fell by 0.7 per cent.

John Fitzgerald, Professor at the ESRI, commented on the latest findings by Daft, saying:

Having seen very substantial falls in 2008 and 2009 it would now appear that rents in Dublin have stabilised.

The first sign that things are beginning to turn will be a move towards rising rents.

Meanwhile, the Irish Times reports that the number of tenants in rent arrears increased significantly in 2010, prompting a 66 per cent rise in dispute cases taken by landlords to the Private Residential Tenancies Board.

A spokesperson for the board said that this was probably due to the recession.