Nationwide report shows rent increases

The Census 2016 results show that individuals countrywide are now leaving it later to purchase their own homes.

Sligo has followed that trend. The overall home ownership rate dropped from 69.7% in 2011 to 67.6% in 2016. Results show that renting is more common than owning a home before the age of 35.

It will come as no surprise that the Census has reported an increase of 16.8% in the average weekly rent paid to private landlord.

The highest growth in rent was in Dublin City with increased by almost 30%, while Dun- Laoghaire- Rathdown, Final, South Dublin and Kildare also recorded increases in excess of 20%.

The 2016 Census has found that there was a 15% drop in the number of all vacant dwellings ( including holiday homes).

Of the vacant homes in 2016, 62,148 were holiday homes, leaving 183,312 other homes vacant.

Blacklion in Cavan had the highest vacancy rate ( 46.4%), followed by Keshcarrigan in Leitrim and Kilgarvan in Kerry.

Among larger towns ( population of 10,000 or more) Letterkenny ( 14.9%), Longford ( 14.6%) and Ballina ( 14.3%) ranked highest in terms of vacancy.

There were 95,013 per permanent households in 2016 with more persons living there than there were rooms.

Deirdre Cullen, Senior Statistician explained: “In recognition of the demand from users and society in general, for a better understanding of housing in Ireland, the Central Statistics Office has prioritised the housing release as its first thematic report from Census 2016.

“We believe this report provides a clear picture of some of the main developments in the Irish housing landscape over the past five years, including new analysis of vacant properties such as type of dwelling and distance to the nearest town.