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THE NUMBER OF properties being advertised to rent in Dublin has increased by 39% in the month of May compared to last year, according to property website Daft.ie.
The almost 2,900 homes being advertised represents the highest one-month total for Dublin homes for rent since August 2015.
There are 5,300 rental properties listed nationwide – an increase of 6% compared to May last year.
“The largely unchanged availability nationwide hides significant differences across the country,” the report said.
There was a fall-off in properties for rent elsewhere in the country: with an 8% drop in Connacht-Ulster, and a 27% drop in Leinster, outside of Dublin.
The latest figures for 1 June show that 4,089 rental properties were available in Dublin – with 2,410 of these in Dublin – that figure represents an even higher increase of 47% compared to the same date last year.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, property site Daft.ie would release figures on a quarterly basis; this has shifted to monthly figures to reflect the changes in the housing market.
The new monthly report gives key figures on the health of both sale and rental markets, with figures showing a 0.6% rise in average rents in May, compared to April.
The average monthly rent nationwide in May was €1,398, 0.7% higher than a year ago, while the average listed sale price was €245,545, 1.6% lower than in May 2019.
Property sales
Sale prices are now lower than a year ago in all parts of the country except Leinster (outside Dublin), where they remain 2.1% above levels seen a year ago.
In Munster, however, the average listed price in May was 5.7% lower than a year ago. In contrast, May rents were on average higher than those seen a year previously – although in Dublin they were unchanged, while in Connacht-Ulster they were 1.7% lower.
Trends in availability show starker differences between sale and rental segments. Across the country as a whole, there were 22% fewer homes for sale on 1 June than on the same date in 2019.
This reflects a collapse in new ads of homes for sale, with just one quarter the number of homes put on the market in May 2020 than the same month a year ago.
Rental Market
In the rental segment, however, the number of homes available to rent in May was up slightly nationwide – by 6%, compared to the same month last year. However supply for Dublin has surged and is up by almost 40%, while the rest of the country saw reduced supply.
In the rest of Leinster, there were just 1,234 rental listings across both April and May this year, compared to almost 1,900 in the same two months in 2019.
Rental prices nationwide did fall 2.1% in April, compared to March, a substantial fall, but this was far less than was seen in the sales market. Furthermore the recovery is much more muted, at just 0.6%.
The national average rent is now slightly higher than a year ago (+0.7%) and the national average sale price is 1.6% lower than a year ago.
Commenting on the report, economist Ronan Lyons said: “The latest figures from the housing market shows clear differences in how sale and rental markets are responding.
“Sale markets have been more volatile – something to be expected given the role confidence plays in making a home purchase.
“Rental markets have been steadier but are also pointing to lower rental levels. As the economy begins to open up again after the Covid-19 lockdown, it remains to be seen the extent of the damage, in particular in the numbers out of work.
“Ireland’s ability to get back to work – and to reconnect with the rest of the world economy – will be critical in restoring a healthy level of housing demand. Nonetheless, huge underlying supply shortages remain, in particular homes for renters in Ireland’s main cities.”
You can read the report here.
Note: Journal Media Ltd has shareholders in common with Daft.ie publisher Distilled Media Group.
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The true picture is beginning to show,just goes to show how much short lets are out there,Airbnb and the likes. Cannot see rents falling as long as landlords are being taxed on every cent of that property. It’s just greed if your landlord owns the property and he’s trying to squeeze you as much as possible but there are a lot out there that have high mortgages on that property and are just trying to make the repayments after tax is taken out. If you have a mortgage of €1200, you’d be hoping to get €2000 in order to service that loan after tax. A person would be crazy to buy a property now in the hope of renting it, unless you have most of the money to buy that property which again adds to the problem of supply.
@Mark Jones: Why do you automatically expect that the rent should fully cover mortgage repayments after tax? At the end of the day the landlord still has their investment, so I’d say its greed for a landlord to expect a renter to cover their whole mortgage
@Frank Scanlon:
The landlord class also expect rents to cover costs of small whingey violins.
@Mark Jones: I agree that private landlords are overtaxed but like most things in this country there’s loopholes for the big players so they end up paying next to nothing. That said, a landlord should not go on with the expectation of having their mortgage covered by rent. There’s no such thing as a free asset.
@Frank Scanlon: You think people that enter a legitimate private rental market as a landlord should not be able to cover costs?
Ever been in business? How willing do you think banks will be to make property loans on that basis?
@Gavin Tobin: there it is, the ‘pension’ investment idea that doesn’t require a contribution from the beneficiary, that’s just a scam and a rip off of the unfortunate needy renter
It shouldn’t be possible to have someone else pay in full for your pension in a housing crisis
@Gavin Tobin: Except its not really just about covering costs is it Gavin? You expect the renter to pay for your property in full, and when all is said and done you still own it and can resell the property. Have a look at property prices vs rental costs in some other European countries and you will see this attitude that the rent raised should automatically cover the full cost of the mortgage is not the norm
@Gerry Ryan: very well said Gerry . I don’t think it is necessarily greed across the board from landlords . It’s more that they purchased the property with daft expectations ,Gavins comment is a great example of that .
@Mark Jones: The housing crisis is all man made. Tenants call it Crisis, landlords call it Golden Days.
Ireland has the lowest population density in Europe. How come there’s no possibility to build more houses? Property, not the Guiness, is an Irish gold. Everyone is protecting it and praying to it.
Can someone compare those numbers with the amount of apartments which are usually with Airbnb?
I would be curious
@8-Bit-Relic: why don’t you do it yourself there?
@8-Bit-Relic: I live in an apartment block in the city centre which was roughly 50% Airbnbs for the past 6 years. Now, the communal garden is full with families and we have actual neighbors once again. In a housing crisis, there should be NO Airbnbs.
@Drunk in Dublin: That’s what I thought. Thank you for your impression. I agree with you that Airbnb shouldn’t be a thing in a country with so many homeless.
Of course people are going to say this is Airbnb related. The reality is many workers from rural Ireland are working remotely when they used to rent in Dublin. Happened to 2 houses on my street and there are on 11 houses for rent in the area. A different 11 to the 9 2 weeks ago.
@Craic_a_tower: Also many people from other countries have packed up and gone home…..this is only starting by the way, when the covid payment stops rents will fall like a stop…..its only a matter of time.
@Peter Hughes: not a definite thing. We have been under supply for years and still don’t have enough to house every. The issue has been that of supply. We are more likely not to build more housing for a while now so supply is not increasing when we are still low on property. Not everyone lost their job either
@Craic_a_tower: Delusional…..unemployment is to hit 15 percent. The same thing happened in the last crash, this one is different but mass unemployment will results in lower rents……at the moment we are have not experienced the pain because of the covid payments, when reality hits in the coming years and it will it is going to hurt and hurt bad.
@Peter Hughes: your view but where are all the people going to live if there is not enough properties? It depends on who the 15% unemployment are and if they would have bought anyway. Rental allowances will be required. It doesn’t really matter if they have a job they still need to rent and somebody has to pay. Where do you think all the people will go?
@Craic_a_tower: they will need to rent yes but at a lower rate than they could afford working or on the Covid payment. Once that stops, those that aren’t going back to work will not be able to continue paying sky high Dublin rents and total demand will fall
State has capacity now to borrow funds long-term at v cheap Int rates. Housing investment is ideal for utilization of this gift horse, given massive shortage in n/wide availability.
Every piece of idle public-owned land should be devoted to const of high rise apartment blocks, nothing fancy, just well built but this time with green spaces, playgrounds.
And make these apartments available to rent at say €750 p/month for a 2 bed, and pro rata to that benchmark for the 1’s, 3’s. To recover/free up some funding, State then sell on to Pension Funds at price allowing them to generate a steady p/a yield of say 7/ 8%.
Given MV of Land nowadays, it makes little sense for State to keeping flogging theirs, as Private Devls competing for that land must charge exorbitant SP’s to turn a profit!
And yet prices remain sky high..
If supply has increased and demand levels off or decreases in Dublin with universities and more remote and flexible working, time for those landlords to take a haircut.
have your say