Parents give up home for ‘chalet’ in garden
WITH a deepening crisis in the housing market, timber cabins are now in ‘huge demand’ and are being hoisted into back gardens across the country.
Many parents have bought the cabins for their own children who are unable to get a foot on the property market – or they are living in them themselves and giving their house to children and grandchildren.
But now, some of these cabins – pitched as ‘cosy Scandinavian style chalets’ have been advertised on rental sites for as much as €1,700 a month.
One listing in Terenure in Dublin 6, which has now been deleted, was an ‘annex to the main house’ available for €900 a
The cheapest ‘studio pod’ costs €35,000
month, despite having no oven or evidence of a bathroom.
The Standard for Rented Houses Regulations 2017 state that a house should provide the use of a ‘4-ring hob with oven and grill’, among its many requirements.
Another listing, in Killester on Dublin’s northside, is described as a ‘lovely cosy log chalet’ and is now available for €400 a week, down from €1,700 a month previously.
It features a bathroom and one double bedroom, but again no oven.
The owners did not respond for a request by the Irish Mail on Sunday to comment on chalet home.
The average nationwide monthly rent now stands at €1,261, according to the most recent figures from Daft.ie. In Dublin, the average is significantly higher, at approximately €1,823 while a single rented bedroom in the city centre averages €654. Only 3,200 properties were available to rent in the first four months of 2018, which is the lowest on record for this time of year. Rents in Dublin are already 30% higher than their previous peak during the Celtic Tiger. Companies behind these modular homes are selling them as fast as they can build them, according to Richard Thorpe, of the Pod Factory in Co. Meath. ‘A lot people are putting them out in their back gardens for their parents moving in or their kids are moving in - we’re getting an awful lot of it,’ said Mr Thorpe.
About 60% of their business comes from clients in Dublin but Mr Thorpe says while young couples often move in, he was shocked to discover the number of parents who move in themselves, leaving their main house to their children.
Their cheapest ‘studio pod’ starts at €35,000, but they also offer garden rooms at €20,000.
Noel Norman, of Timber Cabins, feels that the trend will continue.
‘People are forced to move back to their mothers and fathers because they just can’t afford it,’ he said. ‘It’s better than paying rent to landlords and not getting a penny left for themselves. They’re happy enough to live in a log cabin, perfectly insulated, for much, much cheaper instead of paying a landlord mad money.’