More suffering for tenants as report shows rents still soaring

THE average monthly cost of renting a home in Dublin has soared by almost €200 over the past year, a new survey by Daft.ie has revealed.

The average monthly rent in Dublin is now €1,774 – an increase of €194, or 12.3%, compared to this time last year.

Outside Dublin, the average rent is €847 – an increase of €83 per month, or 10.8%, from this time last year.

The nationwide average during the third quarter of the year was €1,198.

Ronan Lyons, an economist at Trinity College Dublin and the author of the Daft.ie report, said: ‘Rents continue to rise and rise at close to record rates, due to an acute and worsening shortage of accommodation. In some parts of Dublin, they have now risen by 90% from their lowest levels in 2011.

‘It is increasingly agreed that the country needs at least 40,000 – and probably closer to 50,000 new homes – a year to meet underlying demand.’

Demand in the rental market also remains high. Martin Clancy from Daft. ie said: ‘On average, over 1,000 property searches are now taking place every minute on Daft.ie. On a monthly basis, we are seeing over 2.5million unique users logging onto the site.’

The average rent in Cork was €1,144, up 5.3%. In Galway, it was €1,057 – up 9.8%.

Housing campaigner David Hall, of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation, said: ‘We need to build, build, build. The Government itself needs to build affordable houses. The Taoiseach’s comment about affordable housing starting at €315,000 is completely delusional.’

Focus Ireland advocacy director Mike Allen said: ‘While Rent Pressure Zones have helped curtail rent increases for some sitting tenants, there are so many loopholes in the legislation that it is still far too easy for landlords to ignore.’