RENTS have increased by 8.2 per cent in Dublin over the past year according to the latest quarterly rental report from property website Daft.ie.
The average advertised rent in the final quarter of 2015 was €1,435, up 43 per cent from their lowest point in 2011.
The capital remains effectively starved of rental properties, with fewer than 1,400 homes on the market at the start of February, the equivalent of less than two weeks supply.
Ronan Lyons, economist at TCD and author of the Daft Report, said there’s no sign of any improvement in the extreme lack of rental accommodation throughout the country, particularly in Dublin.
“The shortage of accommodation was first identified in the Daft.ie Report in late 2010, ahead of the last election,” he added.
“Unfortunately, at the time, the political focus was on legacy issues related to ghost estates and negative equity. Hopefully, the new Government will focus on taking the necessary steps to increase availability of homes to rent early in its term of office.”
The report found that for the third quarter in a row, annual inflation in Dublin rents (at 8.2 per cent) remains below inflation outside the capital (9.8 per cent).
The highest year-on-year rent increases in Dublin were in West County Dublin, where rents are up by 10.2 per cent to an average of €1,269.
In South County Dublin the increase was 6.5 per cent, bringing average rents up to €1,625. North County Dublin saw a substantial increase of 9.9 per cent meaning rents are now averaging out at €1,197.
North City rents are up by 8.6 per cent to €1,336 while in the South City the increase is 8.4 per cent to €1,547. City Centre rents are also up 8.4 per cent to an average of €1,433.
Rents in central Dublin have risen 46 per cent since 2010, compared to an increase of 36.6 per cent in South County Dublin in the same period.
Across the city, rents are now, on average, just one per cent below their peak levels of eight years ago.