Rental availabilty continues to plummet, pushing up rent costs

THE average Cork city rent for the third quarter of the year was €1,544  – 6.9% higher than the same period last year.

That’s according to the latest rental report by daft.ie which said said the national average was €1,516, an increase of 6.7% and the strongest year-on-year increase since early-2019.

The report said the increase in rents around the country reflects an on-going and unprecedented scarcity of rental homes. Nationwide, there were just 1,460 homes available to rent on November 1st, an all-time low in a series that extends back to January 2006.

Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity College Dublin and author of the report, said: ‘Covid-19 temporarily reshuffled Ireland’s rental problems but the latest figures confirm those problems of shortages are getting worse over time. While Dublin had initially seen an increase in rental availability, with the number of rental homes on the market doubling from 1,600 to nearly 3,200 in 2020, those trends have reversed rapidly, with just over 800 homes available to rent on November 1st. In Ireland’s four other cities, there were 81 homes available to rent in total.

‘Any solution to the chronic shortage of rental homes in Ireland must include building new ones. In this regard, the pipeline of almost 45,000 new build-to-rent homes is particularly welcome. More than 50,000 more rental homes have been proposed. Their construction would help improve the availability and affordability of rental homes, something for policymakers and planners to consider.’