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THE AVERAGE RENT in Ireland has increased by 85% compared to the EU average of 18% between 2010 and the second quarter of 2022, a new study has shown.
The latest Housing Market Monitor published by the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) has shown that the demand for housing as well as the significant gap between average rent and mortgage payments have led to prices rising consistently.
The report also said that “population growth and considerable pent-up demand” have also added to the crisis.
Brian Hayes, Chief Executive of the BPFI, said that higher housing and general living costs as well as the future uncertainty in the wider economy are likely to affect mortgage demand.
“As our latest monitor shows today, looking to the medium and longer term, the significant gap which now exists between average rents and mortgage payments coupled with significant latent demand are likely to balance any negative impact on demand for mortgage lending in the short term which will likely continue to impact house prices unless we see a substantial increase in supply,” he said.
Hayes said that, for example, the average first time buyer monthly mortgage payment was just over €1,000 during the first half of 2021 compared with the average monthly rent of over €1,400 at the national level, with the gap being significantly higher in Dublin.
The BPFI monitor found that prices are rising faster in Ireland than the EU average. This is particularly stark in terms of rental prices with the latest Eurostat data showing that average rents have increased by over 85% in Ireland between 2010 and the second quarter of 2022, the third highest increase in the EU, whereas the increase in average rents during the same period in the EU was 18%.
In terms of house prices, the increase was nearly 50% in the EU during the same period with average prices increasing by over 55% in Ireland.
The BPFI monitor also found that while there has been a significant increase in new housing to the market this year, population growth continues to outstrip supply and in addition to this “we are now seeing a decline in the figures for the commencement of new builds”, Hayes said.
He added: “Commencement figures of new housing in the first nine months of 2022 were 5.4% higher than in the same period of 2019. However, we see that the commencement activity seems to be declining on an annual rolling basis after peaking at 35,000 units during the first quarter of 2022 to some 26,600 units in October 2022.
“Meanwhile, in terms of population growth, the latest Census figures from the CSO show that, between 2016 and 2022, the housing stock increased by over 120,000 whereas population growth during the same period was over 360,000.”
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The investment funds are laughing at us, need to tax them so much it’s not worth them keep on the properties
@pkunzip doom2.zip: So they can then make sure to raise the rent of the next phase even more to pay for it?
Time for change.
Oh, breaking news. Stating the obvious, the question is why and what is being done about it. Answer in short, greed and fxxk all.
@Jules: 100%. nought will be done about it when majority of TDs are landlords who are in bed with the developers etc. Corruption at its best!!
@Sal Paradise: howw many are renters?? They own property and are only interested in seeing their assets grow in value.
@Sal Paradise: don’t believe those figures at all soz!
Government policy towards small landlords for the last decade has greatly increased the hassle and bureaucracy while reducing landlord rights and profits. Many landlords have seen enough and had enough. They are leaving the sector and not being replaced. Rents have increased and supply has fallen off a cliff as a direct result of these policy interventions and the problem is only going to get worse from here on in.
Population growth of over 1% a year is just not sustainable. We’d be having housing problems even without this due to our period of austerity followed by neglect by the government but population growth is making it multiple times worse.
@DK: We have the lowest population density in Western Europe. By a long way. We have no housing because of government policy. That is the only reason.
@Gerard Carthy: But whatever the reason, DK’s point persists, and is relevant. The question is not what the causes are or what is possible theoretically, but how to achieve an out, and why this out is not being achieved.
@Gerard Carthy: it’s not about the space, it’s about the fact we need to to increase our housing stock by 1% of its total each year just to stay still. That’s before we even eat into our existing shortage that we have.
@Gerard Carthy: population density is irrelevant to our ability to build housing quickly enough. Our population has grown from the 2016 census to the 2022 by 350k and now we have 60k Ukrainians on top. No government in Europe would have managed to deal with this growth.
Sinn Féin’s figures of building 100k houses in a year is actually comical. We couldn’t source the material quick enough to deal with that quantity.
These housing articles are pointless, it’s going to take time and ppl just going to have to accept it. We only have so many builders and any extra we bring in need to be housed so banging on about it everyday is making no difference
First we had ghost estates, now it’s phantom houses — one in three of all the new homes thought to have been built over the past seven years never existed.
Source “The Irish Examiner”
If the phantom houses or apartments don’t exist then it’s not possible to rent in Dublin and in most cities and towns it’s the same !
And that 1400 is for a one bed or a studio in Dublin these days and one that you cant swing a cat in…just ridiculous. Grass is deffo greener elsewhere despite the spoof from Leak’s mouth!!
No mention that the rent dropped dramatically just before this period and the fact landlords were renting at a unstable low rent while new charges and taxes were added during this time. This is like Disco Stu talking up disco record sales.
@Craic_a_tower: dropped from crazy inflated celtic tiger levels to normal european level, there never was a period when they were too low, dispite of what greedy landlords like yourself will have us believe….
@Mr A: not true they caught up with EU levels and then dropped with tenants getting rent at unsustainable levels. Landlords could sell at a massive loss or could take the yearly losses hoping things would improve. No matter what you think the rent should be landlords were losing money and when they could recoup the losses along with the extra charges and taxes so rents had to rise. Ever extra Euro cost to a landlord requires 2 in rent increase due to tax. The market failed to add more property to rent so it became more scarce so more expensive. The public approved of extra charges for landlords and seemed to think it would never get passed on nor landlords would recoup losses.
@Mr A: plus it throws 85% increase into selective vision to make it sound worse than it is. Change the date to 2005 to 2022 and it changes radically.
Why is there a windfall tax on energy companies but not VC landlords? But have seen obscene extraordinary profits…
@Sean Mc Garry: Because we should be trying to encourage building not make it stop
@Mickety Dee: I don’t think you realise it but the VC’s limit the amount of houses they build to ensure house and rental prices only increase. VCs will purposely not pump enough money into housing that will cause their margins to go lower, so if you’re relying on investment funds to fix the housing and rental crisis then you will be waiting for probably an infinite amount of time.
https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/vote/dail/33/2022-11-23/133/
Give no preference votes to any of the above listed TDs who voted against the Housing emergency bill in Dail.
Greed kills
Will anyone be held accountable for this, 85% !!!
We’re eejits.
Paris has 9 times as many homes for rent (including for families 3 beds) per capita than Dublin…Poiters pop. 90,000 300 available Limerick 90,000 9 available 33 times more….Munich same pop as county Dublin 6 times more than Dublin. I was covering in a school as a favour teaching Leaving Cert (I am not a qualified teacher) but I could not continue as I had other committments….those LC kids have no teacher…AND WON’T. Classes with no teachers, wards with no nurse under 45 Garda Station with 50 year old guards…Do something NOW or face social collapse.
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