Latest Daft report highlights housing crisis with record shortages of properties to rent
The Irish Rental Report for Q2, 2022 released by Daft.ie will make grim reading for those trying to rent in Co Meath or anywhere else in the country for that matter.
The report shows that rents in Meath were, on average, €1,596 with supply of rental properties also at record lows. For the entire Leinster region (outside of Dublin) there were just 147 homes listed for rent on 1st August, less than one quarter of the average level for the same date in 2015-2019 and by far the lowest level of availability in August going back to 2006.
On 1st August there were just 716 homes available to rent across the country, with fewer than 300 in Dublin.
According to the Daft Report one-bed apartments in Meath were renting at €1,073 on average - an increase of 7.3%. Two-bed houses were €1,298 (up 7.6%); three-bed houses €1,496 (up 9.7%), four-bed houses were €1,729 (up 8.6%) and five-bed houses were €2,045 (up 4.7%).
Commenting on the report Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor in Economics, Trinity College Dublin said there were fewer than three hundred homes advertised to rent in Dublin on 1st August.
"To put that number into perspective, we can contrast it with the average number of homes available to rent on the same date in the late 2010s, between 2015 and 2019. During this period of the Celtic Phoenix, there was very tight supply already as the economic recovery gathered pace. But even then, there was an average of just under 1,450 homes available to rent in Dublin at the start of August.
Mr Lyons said the crisis was not just a Dublin issue. "The number of homes available to rent elsewhere has also collapsed – and with apologies, the rest of Ireland is grouped into that single category, to keep the story easy to follow… there are no traps in doing so,
however, as even splitting the country into sixteen different regional markets would show the same trend everywhere.
"Outside Dublin, the typical August in the late 2010s saw almost 2,100 homes available to rent at any point in time – although the trend was somewhat downward during those five years – compared to just 424 on August 1st this year. But, as mentioned above, the rental market was already hungry for more supply in those years.
"Getting back to the levels of availability in the late 2010s would be merely going to a starving market, from one that is atrophying due to malnutrition, if you’ll allow the metaphor to be extended. In August 2009, there were over 23,400 homes available to rent nationwide – nearly 8,000 in Dublin and 15,500 elsewhere. That means that for every 100 homes available to rent thirteen years ago, there are just three on the market today.
"One could, justifiably, argue that 2009 is the wrong benchmark, as the market had too much supply and too little demand thirteen years ago. That said, it would be impossible for anyone sensible to argue that the 97% reduction in the availability of rental homes is the correct adjustment needed. A halving of supply is more likely to have been sufficient to steady the market.