Irish rents have risen to a record high once again this year due to a shortage of rental properties, according to a new report released by Daft.ie. Their quarterly rental report states that rents jumped to a record high for the fifth quarter in a row between April and June of this year.
Nationwide rents have jumped 11.8% in the first six months of the year. The average rental asking price in Ireland is now at €1,159 per month. The average rental price in Dublin meanwhile is now a worrying €1,707 per month. A major shortage of rental properties is behind the crazy numbers, according to the report.
There were just 2,930 properties available to rent across Ireland on 1 August, the lowest number ever recorded. It is the first time, in fact, since such records began in 2006, that fewer than 3,000 homes were available to rent across the country.
In Dublin there were just 1,100 homes available to rent, compared with 2,000 on the same date in 2014. Meanwhile, rents in Dublin jumped by 12.3% in the first six months of the year. They now stand 18% higher than the previous peak seen in 2008 – equivalent to an additional €260 being paid on average per month per property.
Rental Properties Average Price
- Dublin – €1,707, up 12.3%
- Cork – €1,122, up 6.8%
- Galway – €1,026, up 10.0%
- Limerick – €919, up 10.8%
- Waterford – €772, up 8.4%
- Rest of the country – €824, up 11.9%
Cork city rents rose by 6.8% in the year to June, which is in fact the slowest rate of increase seen there since 2014.
In Galway the numbers being charged are 10% higher than this time last year. That means 11 straight quarters, or just under three years, of double-digit increases in the city.
Limerick city’s rents rose 10.8% in the last 12 months, while in Waterford the increase was 8.4%.
Meanwhile, outside the cities, rents have risen by 11.9% across the country.
Homeless Crisis
Focus Ireland, the homeless organisation, have alerted the Irish Government that there is currently 3,000 homeless children in Ireland and that they are becoming the ‘invisible victims’ of the housing crisis.
“As September approaches up to 1,800 children are preparing to return to primary or secondary school and many are from families forced into homelessness by the rental crisis,” Roughan MacNamara (Focus Ireland Advocacy Manager).
“This situation is really impacting on them as children and on their education. It is fundamentally wrong that this is being allowed to happen.”
Average asking prices and year-on-year change Source: Daft.ie
MacNamara has said that action on vacant properties (such as a tax, or compulsory purchase orders) are key to solving the situation, one that seems to grow ever more dire with each passing month.
“The review of Rebuilding Ireland (former Housing Minister Simon Coveney’s plan to rejuvenate the sector, launched last year) must take steps to urgently increase access to housing by encouraging those with empty properties to make them available,” he said.
This must be a carrot and stick approach such as introducing more incentives for people to rent out empty houses alongside a tax on empty properties in this time of crisis.
Shortage of Student accommodation
Each year, typically the months of July and August are two of the busiest for the rental market, with students preparing to return to college as they scramble to secure accommodation for the coming academic year. That is a situation that has not materialised in 2017.
“In the last two years… there has been no summer rush of properties to rent,” said Trinity College Dublin economist, and author of the report, Ronan Lyons.
“In a market with such chronically deficient supply, it is therefore unsurprising to see rents reach a new high.”