Cost of renting surges past €1,000 a month

THE average cost of renting has surged past €1,000 a month nationally.

New figures show rental inflation hit 7pc in the first three months of the year compared with the previous quarter.

The data from the State’s Residential Tenancy Board show that the cost of renting jumped by €70 a month in March compared with a year earlier. This meant the average cost nationwide is now €1,060.

It now costs €1,500 a month for accommodation in Dublin, up more than €100 from a year ago.

That is 16pc higher than rents have been before.

Outside Dublin and its surrounding areas the cost of renting is now €791.

The capital city and surrounding commuter counties are pushing up the cost of renting nationally, according to the Residential Tenancy Board rental index.

But Cork saw rents rise, as did Limerick.

The cost of renting has now gone above €1,000 a month in Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Meath, Cork and Galway.

The figures show that rents in the Greater Dublin Area (excluding Dublin) decreased by 0.72pc compared with the previous quarter, falling €8 from €1,112.

Outside Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area the standardised average new

rent was €791, up just €1 on the previous quarter.

In Cork, new rents are up 3.4pc year on year but down on the previous quarter by 0.8pc to €1,075.

Director of the Residential Tenancy Board Rosalind Carroll said economic growth and job creation had exerted huge pressure on the private rental market in the first three months of the year.

But she said there were some signs of an easing on the cost pressure.

She said that on a quarterly basis we have now seen three consecutive quarters of reduced growth rates both at a national level and in Dublin.

“We will need to monitor whether this quarterly trend continues during the rest of 2018,” Ms Carroll (pictured inset) said. There are particular pressures in Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area. The rent index is based on new tenancies registered each quarter and does not reflect what is happening within existing tenancies. Many areas have been classed as rent pressure zones, restricting the ability of landlords to hike rents.

Ms Carroll said some of the new tenancies were properties that were new to the market or may have been subject to substantial change and as such were exempt from the restrictions of the rent pressure zones.