Daft’s latest rental report gives perhaps the misleading impression that rents nationally are rising at an annual rate of 7.3 per cent and at double-digit rates in cities outside Dublin, which would be somewhat perverse when most urban areas are covered by rent controls, which limit the annual uptick to 2 per cent.
Daft’s figures, however, refer to new rental listings or rent asking prices. In the main, these are new rental properties coming to the market for the first time or new tenancies on properties that have been offline for at least two years. In both scenarios, landlords are free to charge what they like.
Daft’s main figures do not refer to the rent being paid by in-situ or existing tenants. It does note, however, that, on average, rents for sitting tenants have increased 2.6 per cent each year over the last decade compared with 7.2 per cent for market tenants during the same period.
That caveat aside, the report, paints a picture of a rental market which is chronically undersupplied and grossly overpriced.
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The average rent nationally was put at €1,922 per month (41 per cent higher than before the pandemic) and at €2,427 per month in Dublin. Remember the old maxim about spending a third of your income on rent. These figures make a mockery of that notion.
There were also just 2,200 homes available to rent on Daft’s website anywhere in the State on August 1st, unchanged from a year ago and half the 2015-2019 average of 4,400.
Trinity College Dublin academic and author of the report Ronan Lyons said the gains made in terms of availability in Dublin in recent years have “run out of steam”.
He noted there were fewer than 1,350 homes on the market in the capital at the start of August. “Sixteen months of improving availability are over,” he said.
The deterioration in supply and affordability for renters is stark and unrelenting and represents perhaps the single biggest failure of Government.
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