Dublin rents now 25% above pre-pandemic levels

Rents in Dublin are now around 25% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The latest report from Daft shows the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment nationwide is currently €2,204 per month, and €2,634 in Dublin.

Social Democrats TD and housing spokesperson Rory Hearne called the figures “sickening.”

The Dublin North-West TD said the figures “make for sickening reading for those looking to rent, facing eviction, or experiencing homelessness.”

The rent crisis isn’t just confined to Dublin; rents in Connacht-Ulster and Munster have increased by 90% and 75% respectively in the past six years.

“Wherever you look across the country, rents have risen to unaffordable levels, a trend perpetuated by government housing policy,” Hearne said.

Hearne asserted “the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael approach to housing is deeply flawed, addressing the wants of investor funds and corporate landlords before the needs of struggling renters and those in housing precarity and homelessness.”

“Outside Dublin, where rents have been out of reach for the vast majority of families for years now, market rents in the second quarter were 13% higher year-on-year in Galway city, 12% higher in Cork, and up 11% in Limerick,” he noted.

Hearne said “renters are forced to pay massive proportions of their salaries just to keep a roof over their heads. This generation of renters have next to no opportunity to save a deposit to buy a home, locked out of the market by corporate greed.”

“New research from PTSB found that over 52% of under-35s believe they will never be in a position to buy a home, forced to rent for the rest of their lives or add their name to an over-subscribed social housing list. The dreams of our young people have been shattered, pushing thousands from our shores in the process.

Hearne noted “the Social Democrats have put forward short, medium and long-term solutions in the form of a rent freeze, eviction ban, the ramp up of delivery of affordable purchase homes and a state construction company to make a real difference for those in housing precarity.”

“Government inaction, and an outlook that lacks even a modicum of ambition, cannot underpin the state’s delivery of housing any longer,” he said.