Cost of renting in Dublin rises

By Jake Maxwell

The City rent cost increase this year showed that renting a home in Dublin rose on average by €113 in the last 12 months.

The city rent cost increase means that someone signing a 12-month lease now will pay €1,356 more over the course of next year than they would have paid a year earlier.

According to the latest figures from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), the Dublin City rent cost increase shows rents are now at an all-time high, and 3.9% higher than the previous peak which was recorded in the last quarter of 2007.

Annual growth in the Dublin market was up by 9% from €1,251 to €1,364.

City rent cost increase rates were up by 7.5 % from €1,388 to €1,492, while apartment rents were 9.8 % higher – from €1,246 to €1,368.

The report is widely regarded as the most accurate and authoritative of its kind on the private accommodation sector and is based on 22,103 new tenancies nationwide which started in April, May and June this year and were registered with the RTB.

It reflects the actual rents being paid, according to the RTB’s records, as distinct from the asking or advertised rent.

Dramatic increases have not been confined to the Dublin region, however, and have also been reported in other parts of the country.

Not just Dublin City rent cost increase

Countrywide rent jumped by almost 10% in the 12 months to the end of July with rents in Dublin reaching record levels.

While rents are increasing outside the capital, they are still 11.2% off their peak levels.

The figures come from the RTB’s Quarterly Rent Index compiled by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

On a national basis, rents were 9.9% higher in the second quarter this year compared to the same period last year.

In cash terms average rents were up from €869 to €956.

Rents for houses were 9.3% higher, up from €850 to €929, while apartment rents were 11.7% higher than in the same quarter of 2015, up from €908 to €1,014.

Turning to the quarter-on-quarter picture, the index shows that at a national level monthly rent levels rose in the second quarter of this year by 3.6% when compared with three months earlier.

This compared to a growth rate of just 0.2% in the first quarter of 2016.

Monthly rents for houses and apartments nationally showed a similar rate of increase but in Dublin the rate of increase for apartments (at 5.4%) was higher than that for houses (3.1%).

The index shows that, nationally, rents peaked in the second quarter of 2007, before declining by 25.4 % to their trough at the start of 2012.

By the end of July this year rents nationally were 5.7% lower than their peak.