CORK RENTS JUMP 10% IN A YEAR

CORK CITY RENT JUMPS TO ALMOST €1,150 PER MONTH WHILE RENTS IN REST OF COUNTY ARE ALMOST 50 PER CENT ABOVE LOWEST POINT.

RENTS rose nationwide by an average of 11.2 per cent in the year to September 2017, according to the latest quarterly Rental Price Report by Daft.ie.

In Cork city and county rents have risen substantially too, although the percentage rise is slightly less than other parts of the country.

The average monthly rent nationwide during the third quarter of 2017 was €1,198, the sixth quarter in-a-row a new all-time high has been set. In Cork City, rents have risen by 5.3 per cent in the last year and the average rent is now €1,144. In the rest of Cork, rents were on average 9.9 per cent higher in the third quarter of 2017 than a year previously. The average advertised rent is now €855, up 47 per cent from its lowest point.

Meanwhile in Galway, rents were 9.8 per cent higher than a year previously. In Limerick city, rents rose by 10.9 per cent during the past 12 months, while in Waterford the increase was 8.5 per cent. Outside the five main cities, rents have risen by 10.8 per cent.

On average, over 1,000 property searches are now taking place every minute on Daft.ie. On a monthly basis, they are seeing over 2.5 million unique users logging onto the site.

There were 3,365 properties available to rent nationwide on November 1. This is the lowest number ever recorded for this time of year, since the series started in 2006 and the total marks a 16 per cent decrease on the same number a year previously.

In Dublin, there were just 1,300 homes available to rent, compared to more than 6,700 on the same date in 2009.

Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity College Dublin and author of the Daft Report, said: “Rents continue to rise, and rise at close to record rates, due to an acute and worsening shortage of accommodation. Four of the five largest quarterly increases in rents have now occurred since the start of 2016 and rents in 46 of the 54 markets in the report now exceed their Celtic Tiger highs”.

He believes the construction effort should focus on apartments, of all types, in major urban areas.