Rents up by 7.6% for new tenancies as affordability crisis spreads across the State

Rents increased in new tenancies on an annual basis by 7.6 per cent despite many parts of the country being subject to rent pressure zones, latest figures reveal.

The Residential Tenancies Board’s figures for the last quarter of 2022 show new rents growing fastest in areas that are not the subject of the zones.

In such areas, rents can increase by no more than 2 per cent in a calendar year unless it is a new tenancy.

The highest increases were in Longford (18.5 per cent), Donegal (17.1 per cent) and Tipperary (14.1 per cent). Thirteen counties had a yearly growth rate in new tenancy rents above 10 per cent in the last quarter of 2022.

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Co Dublin, which comprises four local authority areas, Dublin City Council, South Dublin County Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Fingal, saw new rents increase by 6.9 per cent which is slightly lower than the national average. All four local authorities are rent pressure zones.

The rent index report is based on new tenancies in existing rental properties, new properties being let for the first time, and new tenancies in properties that have not been let in the previous two years. It is not designed to measure increases or decreases in rents from existing tenancies.

The highest standardised average rent in new tenancies for the last quarter of 2022 was in Co Dublin at €2,063 a month while the lowest was Leitrim where it was €800 a month.

Sixteen counties have standardised average rents in new tenancies above €1,000 per month in the last quarter: Carlow, Clare, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Louth, Meath, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, and Wicklow.

The figures would appear to suggest that there is more rental supply coming on the market. The number of newly registered tenancies available increased by 15.4 per cent from 13,751 new tenancies available in the last quarter of 2021 to 15,868 in the last quarter of 15,868. However, this compares with a figure of 19,455 new registered tenancies at the end of 2020.

Housing charity Threshold said the latest figures showed the housing crisis was not just confined to urban areas, pointing out that rents in Co Longford had gone up by 50 per cent in just three years between 2019 and 2022.

It also stated that the rules related to pressure zones were not being properly enforced. The housing charity has called for a property-specific rent register which would provide renters with the knowledge necessary to challenge unlawful increases.

Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan said: “It’s no wonder homeownership rates are falling as more and more people become trapped in a rental market where it is next to impossible to save for a deposit.

[ Where are new rental homes going to come from? ]

“Rents in Dublin are now rising at multiples of the 2 per cent zone cap. It’s clear that Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien is presiding over a dysfunctional rent control system and an under-resourced RTB.

“We need to establish a register of rents so that incoming tenants can find out how much rent their predecessors paid. This will allow them to check if rent caps are being properly applied to their tenancy.

“The current opaque system is allowing renters to get ripped off every time they move home. A rent register would bring some much-needed transparency to the Irish rental market.”

Meanwhile, Dublin Simon Community said that a quarter of its 129 emergency beds in Dublin had been occupied this month by workers.

Some 33 beds were occupied by construction workers, tradespeople, carers, security staff, taxi drivers and social media content moderators.

Dublin Simon spokeswoman Niamh Brennan said it was “deeply demoralising for those who are working to have to rely on emergency beds in homeless services to lay their head down at night”.