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RISING RENTS IN Galway are to be investigated by the regulator for the private rental sector.
The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) has said this morning that it will meet with renters and landlords to help understand the “concerning trends” in the city.
It follows “unusual patterns of rental inflation” and “persistently high” rates in in Galway according to the watchdog.
In a fresh report released today, the RTB said that the average rent for new tenancies in Galway city is €1,730, placing it ahead of all cities aside from Dublin. Cork city has the third highest at €1,605.
The RTB said today that it will also host a forum for Galway to “address rental law compliance” as part of its response. RTB figures show that there are 13,324 registered private tenancies in the city, with the real number likely higher due to some tenancies not being signed up to the regulator.
“After eight consecutive quarters of high growth in new tenancy rent levels in Galway, the RTB will engage directly with renters, landlords and other rental sector stakeholders in the county this June to investigate this trend further,” the RTB said in a statement this morning.
In its latest quarterly update published today, the RTB said it has added the Local Electoral Areas of Tullow in Co Carlow and Castlebar in Co Mayo to its Rent Pressure Zone list. This means that landlords rents can’t raise rents by more than 2% annually.
The standardised average rent for new tenancies nationally rose by 5.5% year-on-year to €1,680 in Q4 2024. It rose by 4.6% year-on-year for existing tenancies nationally to €1,440 in Q4 2024 which the RTB said marks a moderation on the rates of rental inflation seen earlier in 2024.
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The Law of Supply and Demand. Basic junior cert economics. Let’s spend taxpayers money on a report, says the Government.
Rents going up in high population density areas is not news.
If the rents ever go down, well that is one article I would certainly read.
Why use a soft term like “rental inflation” when there is already a perfectly adequate term “rental gouging”
What do they expect?
The planning office in Galway is slow and builders are saying inconsistent.
New builds are taking long time to get started…
This is basic supply and demand, Supply is being bottlenecked at planning
@Jack Dermody: Funny you should say that as my company are currently doing a planning application to GCC and they insist on the old fashioned ‘drop in 6 copies of everything on paper’ approach rather than using the planning portal like all the other authorities we deal with.
I think they’re ‘slow’ in every sense.
@Jack Dermody:
Sorry but the bottleneck is not planning.
No question that planning is slow, painfully slow but for the last few years there has been permission granted for about 34,000 units per year but we have only built about 30,000.
All our builders are flat out so if someone solved the planning problems in the morning it might improve a particular problem say in Galway but it would mean houses somewhere else didn’t get built.
The REAL problem is not enough builders but politicians of all parties don’t want to talk about that because they know they can’t fix it.
Throw in the large number of people who don’t want the crisis solved in case it stops the value of their properties rising I can see the housing shortage being around for decades still.
And the Government want to get rid of RPZs. There is only so much a person can pay.
@Áine G: and there is only so little landlords will accept. Price fixing only ever achieves one thing no matter on what products or in what regions it is attempted, and that is to reduce supply by prohibiting the market from reaching price equilibrium.
@Áine G: a RPZ means there isn’t enough rental units in that area, the government should’ve introduced tax breaks and changes to planning to encourage development .
@brian o’leary: The problem isn’t the will to build and buy… Continuously they say the Corporation planning office is the bottleneck…
Before we blame them directly, ask are the understaffed… Are they getting the support they need too..
@George Bowling: housing shouldn’t be a commodity. Maye you think it should. I’d like to see you paying over half what you earn on rent.i think your attitude might be a little more sympathetic then
@D C: economic theories based on levels of sympathy tend not to be very successful. Housing is a commodity, doesn’t matter whether you think it should be or not, it just is. It costs capital and labour to produce, and the owner of it once produced adopts risk, be that just falling market prices or the various ways in which it can be damaged resulting in costs to the owner. You want people who adopt these risks to do so with no potential reward, because you’re “sympathetic” or something. They won’t, because they’re not your slaves.
@brian o’leary: If that was true the whole of Waterford City would have been placed under the RPZ in 2019 but it wasn’t. Some streets were and some streets were not. It didn’t make sense at the time. Nothing to do with availability. The RPZ had an adverse effect on supply because landlords that were happy to leave good tenants on low rents got caught. Everything else was going up i.e. cost of repairs, insurance, interest rates etc but they were stuck with the low rents. It was no longer sustainable. This is why there was a mass exodus. These properties were not going to be bought by investors because of the low rents they were bought to live in.
@George Bowling: also get rid of the HAP and other housing support mechanisms. Remove that element from the private rental market.
Highly desirable areas will always be expensive to live in. People should realise that only the very fortunate few will achieve the dream of renting a place in Tullow, Co Carlow.
@George Bowling: especially if councils and local authorities are hoovering up properties in these desirable areas to house the great unwaged.
Nothing just greed!
And RPZs aren’t price fixing method but to protect the renters from landlords’ GREEEEED!
@Concerned Driver: The has not been my experience. If you are renting an apartment for €1200 per month and your neighbour is renting the same apartment for €700 per month this is neither fair on the tenant paying €1200 or on the landlord in receipt of €700.00. The rent calculation system needs a complete overhaul and should be dependent on area, size, BER and meet minimum housing standards end of. The Government are setting the legislation and it isn’t working but yet Landlords are being scapegoated and everyone is falling for it.
@Concerned Driver: scream greed all you want. It’s due to lack of supply. And problem will still stay the same unless the supply issue is fixed. You could set max rent at 1 euro a month but it wouldn’t create new properties. Build. That’s it.
The RTB is not a watchdog. Look at their track record. Toothless, gummy wafflers. Ban AirBnBs. Prosecute landlords – jail them.
Greed
Properties that are RPZ exempt:-
1. Properties which has never been rented previously
2. Properties which has been vacant for 2 years(this ties in with the refurb grants) people buying waiting out for the 2 years to apply for the refurb grant & then rent out. Refurb grants should be dependent soley on the condition of property & processed on application.
3. Property complies with the RPZ exemption list(see RTB website)
It beggars believe that they have to go on a fact finding mission when they are the ones who are making the legislation in the first place. If the Government wanted to solve the housing crisis it would have been solved long ago.
According to RTB Waterford average rent is €1590.00(2024) but when I assess the average rent for the total units we manage on behalf of landlords the average is €834.00
The big problem is offshore investers coming in and buying up properties even when a previous deal has been reached, no outside investor should be allowed own more than 49% of a property here, like in other countries
@Mike B: they buy and don’t follow RPZ rules I’ve seen it and reported them to the RTB when I saw it. I was so angry. The RTB told me they couldn’t do anything because it wasn’t registered. Really makes me mad when I see this when the vast majority of us are trying to do everything right.
I live on the east side of Galway and there’s plenty of building going on around me !
@Sinead Cosgrave: yes plenty of building going on for who? I
@Sinead Cosgrave: Shissss…. RTE and other media camera operators are not allowed show the vast building work that is taking place. It disturbs their negative narrative
@John finn: Chinese investment funds
The main concerning trend is the lack of places to rent. If you look on the main sites there are only a handful of places advertised in each county. Each property has hundreds of people trying to rent it. Most enquires you make are never responded to. The few that do, require bank statements, multiple references etc just to be in the running. This is what a supply imbalance looks like. And it’s the fault of know nothing meddling politicians.
@Tom D: you should never give or be asked for personal data unless you are formally being offered a property. Asking if you have it available is ok prior to a viewing. If you owned a property would you just take someone on face value and hand over keys? A landlord needs to be as confident as possible that they are renting to someone who will pay the rent, look after the place and report things when they break, that’s where references help. I agree with you though it is extremely tough for anybody trying to get into a property, it really is luck to be offered a place. One property and hundreds of applicants. It really is a mess. We need to start looking at housing differently if this situation is to change.
Plenty of price fixing in Galway, just look at petrol and diesel prices, 10-15 cents more per litre than Dublin. No mystery about rents, no houses , no body to build them and a County Council more interested in making sure every thing they print is translated in to Irish at huge costs than progressing house building. Council always knocking back planning applications for stupid reasons.
Absolutely fantastic laughing at BOB and his multiple personalities also delighted with the clearance Israel is completing. Oh don’t forget fabulous weather what’s not to smile about.
There’s no political will to solve the housing crisis.
If there was, Chinese firms could come in and build quality, mixed use, high density skyscrapers in a matter of months.
I’d expect building industry would whine and lobby that their outdated block houses and blocklaying skills monopoly was being affected.
Thus should be happening in all major cities.
have your say