Revealed: The average rent in each county in Ireland

Renting in Dublin now €4,000 a year more than at peak of boom

Year-on-year chnage compared with Q3 2016

Charlie Weston

THE cost of renting in Dublin is now €4,000 a year higher than during the peak of the boom almost a decade ago.

New figures show that rents nationwide jumped by an average of 11pc in the year to September.

Source: Daft.ie

The average rent across the country is now €1,198, up by €121 a month in the past year alone, according to the latest quarterly rental price report by Daft.ie.

It was the sixth quarter in a row a new all-time high had been set.

In Dublin, rents have shot up by 12.3pc in the past year.

The average cost of renting in the capital is now €1,774.

This is €330 a month more than during the previous peak in 2008, according to Daft.ie. Over a year, this works out at close to €4,000 in extra rent since the Celtic Tiger bubble.

The number of properties available to rent also continues to fall.

There were 3,365 properties available to rent nationwide at the start of this month.

This is the lowest number recorded for this time of year since the series started in 2006. It marks a 16pc decrease on the same time last year.

In Dublin, there were just 1,300 homes available to rent, compared with more than 6,700 on the same date in 2009.

Economist with Daft.ie and Trinity College Dublin Ronan Lyons said rents were continuing to rise, and rise at close to record rates.

He said this was due to an acute and worsening shortage of accommodation.

"Four of the five largest quarterly increases in rents have now occurred since the start of 2016 and rents in 46 of the 54 markets covered in the report now exceed their Celtic Tiger highs."

Prof Lyons said rents in some parts of Dublin had now risen by 90pc from their lowest levels in 2011.

He said it was now generally agreed that the country needed at least 40,000, possibly 50,000, new homes a year to meet underlying demand.

"As Ireland catches up with its peers in terms of demographics and urbanisation, the construction effort should focus on apartments, of all types, in major urban areas," he said.

Prof Lyons said high costs associated with the construction process relative to incomes were the main reason more houses were not being built.

"Caps on rent increases may help sitting tenants, but are at best of no consequence in solving the underlying challenge," he said.

The rent increases are despite State moves to restrict rises.

There are currently 21 rent pressure zones in the State, including the four Dublin local authorities and Cork city.

In these zones, rents cannot rise more than 4pc a year. Almost 60pc of private tenancies are now in rent pressure zones.