The high cost of private rental accommodation shows little sign of reducing, with average rents rising by 8.2 per cent on a year-on- year basis. However, regional variations in rental costs are now increasingly apparent, as the overall supply of rental properties continues to contract. A report on trends in the rental market by the property website Daft shows rental inflation easing somewhat in Dublin – rising 6 per cent since April 2014. But rental costs in the capital's commuter areas – in adjacent counties, Louth, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow – continue to accelerate, increasing by 14 per cent in the past 12 months.
This month just 4,300 properties were available to rent countrywide – a 40 per cent decline on a year ago, and the lowest number since 2006. This overall shortage of supply, at a time of rising demand as the economy recovers, has pushed up rental costs. Strong demand makes further rent rises likely, and also makes renting a less attractive option. And for many people, higher rental costs – allied to the introduction of tighter loan limits on mortgage finance by the Central Bank in an effort to discourage a return to reckless lending – have made it harder either to rent or to buy property.
As Ronan Lyons, the author of the report, notes the overall rental cost trends will be viewed differently. For some western counties, the modest rent rises in the last two years reflect an improving economy, with a reduction in the excess supply of rental property from the bubble period. While in other (urban) areas, rent increases of one-quarter to one-third over the last couple of years "are far from benign". The great imbalance in the rental market remains that between limited supply and rising demand for properties. And that can best be redressed, Mr Lyons suggests, by Government initiatives to reduce the high cost of building homes, and to reform the way social housing is funded. Such changes, allied also to legislation ensuring tenants can enjoy both greater rent certainty and better security of tenure, are long overdue.