Yesterday.
Daft.ie released it’s latest rental report.
From the report:
“Rents now 31% higher than their 2008 peak.
“The average market rent nationwide has risen by 81% since bottoming out in late 2011 and, having exceeded its 2008 peak in 2016, is now 30.8% above the previous high.
“In Dublin, rents are now an average of 37% above their previous peak while in Cork and Galway cities, rents are 30% and 47% above levels recorded a little over a decade ago.
“Outside the cities, the average rent is 22% above its previous peak.”
In the report, Ronan Lyons writes:
“…we are still discussing substantial price increases, even if in percentage terms the increases in key markets have fallen below a noteworthy threshold.
“The average Dublin rent rose by €160 during 2018, compared to €180 in 2017. It is unlikely that any new or existing tenants will be celebrating just because the new all-time high is less dramatically above the previous high than it was compared to the figure from two years ago.
“Indeed, one possible reason for the slowdown in inflation could be that the market has reached the limits of what tenants can pay. Digging beneath the figures, though, another reason suggests itself: improved supply. If true, this could indicate that the mild improvement in market conditions in Ireland’s rental market may continue.
“On January 1st 2019, there were 3,641 properties available to rent nationwide, an increase of over 11% on the same date in 2018, when there were just 3,270 homes on the market.
“As shown in the graph accompanying this piece, (above) this is still the second lowest start-of-year total on record, going back to 2006. It is also below the 2016 and 2017 totals (both just below 3,900) and well below the previous market crunch in 2006/2007 when there were just under 5,000 homes available to rent.
“But an improvement is still an improvement, even if it is off a very low base. When availability improves, it is either due to a fall in demand or an increase in supply. Obviously, with Brexit looming, a fall-off in demand cannot be ruled out. However, that seems at odds with the evidence: employment and incomes are, at least at the moment, still going up.
“So, at a time of apparently strong rental demand, especially in the Dublin market, there are some signs that availability is improving and inflation easing, however slightly. A further possibility presents itself. It is possible that the numbers are something of an aberration ‐ one swallow does not a summer make.“
Read Daft’s Rental Price Report for the fourth quarter of 2018 in full here