Rents continue to spiral across Cork city and county

THE spiralling costs of rents across Cork is causing “untold hardship” and is leaving an entire generation facing the prospect of paying exorbitant rental costs with no possibility of owning their own home.

That’s the view of Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin who was responding figures contained within the latest rental report from property website Daft.ie, which its own author admitted made “grim reading for those renting”.

The report revealed that average rents in Cork City and county have increased again in the third quarter of this year and are now 8% higher than their 2008 peak.

It showed that the average rent in Cork City now stands at €1,087 per month – an increase of 3.5% from the previous quarter and a staggering 14.4% up on the same period 12-months ago.

This represents the highest year-onyear increase in rents of any city in the state including the capital, with rents in Cork now more than 52% higher than their lowest point.

The average rent for a single bed room in Cork City centre now stands at €384 (up 12.3% on last year) and €461 for a double-bed room (up 12.2%).

The average third quarter rent in Cork County stood at €778, an increase of 3.9% on the previous quarter and 12.5% up on the same period in 2015. The report showed that Cork has the most expensive rents of any county in Munster and that rental charges were up by 33.5% from their lowest point in 2008.

There was more bad news contained within the report in relation to the number of properties available to rent across Munster, with fewer than 900 available as of October 1 – down by almost 100 on the same date 12-months ago.

This is a trend repeated across the entire country, with just, 3,600 rental properties available in the state last month

By way of comparison, there were more than 23,000 properties available to rent across the country at the beginning of August 2009.

The continuing dearth of properties would indicate that the trend of spiralling rents across the country is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Nationally, the average rent rose by 4% in the third quarter. Combined with other rent increases over the year, the average rate of rental inflation across Ireland is now 11.7% - the highest recorded by the Daft.ie report since it was first commissioned in 2002.

The reports author Ronan Lyons, an economist at Trinity College Dublin, said the increasing rental rates were a result of the “complete absence of any meaningful level of construction in Ireland over the past five years.”

“The latest report highlights that rents will continue to rise and further damage Irish competitiveness and Irish social cohesion,” he warned.

Deputy Martin said it was imperative that the deepening crisis within the rental market be addressed if people were to stand any chance of ever owning their own homes.

“People are in a catch 22 situation – they are paying rocketing rents, but the banks require them to save for larger mortgage deposits,” said Deputy Martin.

“An entire generation of Cork people are facing the possibility of being stuck paying exorbitant rent with no possibility of owning their own home. When they have the rent and other bills paid, there is nothing available to start building towards a deposit,” he added.