20,000 CHASE 1,000 RENTAL HOMES

Housing supply falls to a record low

TWENTY thousand people are chasing fewer than 1,000 homes available to rent nationwide, as supply has now fallen to a new record low.

The ‘unbelievable scarcity’ of properties on the market means that many growing families are stuck in unsuitable homes or are struggling to find homes to rent if they have to move location.

The squeeze on supply is also leading to rising costs, with the average rent up €165 a month over the past year to €1,567 – an increase of almost 12%, the latest rental report from Daft.ie reveals. Nationwide, there were

just 851 homes to rent on May 1, down from over 3,600 a year ago. This marked an new alltime low in a trend that extends back to 2006.

Report author Ronan Lyons, associate professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin, said: ‘The economy has suffered from an underprovision of new rental accommodation for over a decade. As a result, market rents have doubled and rental homes have become unbelievably scarce.’

Rents climbed almost 3% on the last three months of 2021 and are now more than double the low of €765 a month seen in late 2011.

One property expert told the Mail: ‘There are probably about 20,000 people looking for rental accommodation at any particular point in time with fewer than a thousand homes nationwide.’

Many of the 20,000 would already have somewhere to

‘Exodus of landlords’

live but are looking to move for work or because they need less or more space.

‘That’s not 20,000 homeless. The mobility you normally expect to see in the rental market, that’s just not there because the supply isn’t there and everything is grinding to a halt. People are staying. If they’re lucky enough to get somewhere, they’ll stay there if they can,’ he added.

With property agents estimating that some 10,000 landlords are selling up and leaving the market a year, Senator Michael McDowell told the Irish Daily Mail that Government policies will need to change radically to address the housing crisis.

Earlier this week, research from agents Sherry FitzGerald warned that there has been ‘no relent in the exodus of landlords’ from the rental market, as the ratio was near to three to one for those leaving the market versus those investing in the opening months of the year.

The former justice minister Mr McDowell also called for the Government to use of statutory powers of planning, compulsory purchase, taxation and incentives to increase the flow of land available for the construction of homes. He believes current Government policies are contradicting one another, remarking: ‘Private landlords are leaving the private rented dwelling market in droves and selling out – that is as a result of Government policies. We’re not building enough homes at the right prices for the people who need them and that seems to be an endemic problem over a long period and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change under current policies in the foreseeable future.’

After more than a year of ‘volatile’ rents during the pandemic, rents in the capital have now recorded five consecutive three-monthly increases.

While there have been differences in regional trends in rents in recent months, the rate of increase was similar across all major regions between early 2021 and early 2022. In Dublin, market rents rose by 10.6% year-on-year, while in Cork and Galway cities, rents rose by 10.2% and 13.8%.

Rents rose higher in Limerick and Waterford cities, at 15.5% and 16.2% respectively, while outside the cities the average increase was 12.7%

The recent fall in homes to rent is seen in all regions of the country, with an 81% drop in availability in Dublin and a 66% fall elsewhere in the country. Sinn Féin spokesperson on housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD said: ‘Double-digit rent increases are not being accompanied by increases in wages and with the cost of living skyrocketing, workers and families will struggle to meet these rises.

‘The Government’s 2% rent cap is clearly not working. We need a ban on rent increases on all existing and new tenancies, and we need Government to put money back in renters’ pockets through a refundable tax credit worth a month’s rent.

Government must also accept that we need to see affordable cost rental housing delivered at scale – at least 4,000 units per year to meet affordable rental demand.’

The severe lack of rental accommodation is leading to rising levels of homelessness, charity Focus Ireland spokesman Mike Allen said.

‘This is confirming what all our frontline services have been saying, homeless figures have gone up regularly over the past number of months.

‘While there has been some increase in the numbers coming into homelessness, the big change has been how are they able to get out of homelessness and mostly they get out by the rental sector and there’s nowhere to rent.

‘The main route out of homelessness, particularly for single people has been private rented accommodation throughout the years.

‘But since Covid that has been really tightening monthon-month and we’re finding it very difficult to find any accommodation. These figures are very worrying but not surprising, they are confirming the pattern that’s been seen on the frontline.’

There were nearly 10,000 people homeless at the end of March, an increase of 3.5% in a month and a sharp 23% increase compared to the same time last year, according to the Department of Housing.

‘Figures are very worrying’