The Private Residential Tenancies Board, a government appointed body that all landlords in Ireland must register with, have released a report confirming that rents in Dublin are now higher than they were during the previous peak in 2007.
However the rate of growth in the cost of rented accommodation slowed in the final quarter of last year while rents outside Dublin are about 14.5% below their peak.
The peak of 2007 when the economic crash caused rents nationwide to fall by 25%, hitting a bottom in 2012. Since then they have risen, but at different rates in different parts of the country.
Rents in Dublin are 0.4% higher than their previous peak in 2007.
Information from more than 27,000 new tenancies that started in October, November and December show the pace of rental increase is slowing, and rents outside Dublin are now growing at a faster rate than the capital. On an annual basis, rents were almost 10% higher across the country, showing increases in rent in Dublin of €124 a month for a house and €105 for an apartment, while outside the capital average monthly rent went up by €64 for a house and €67 for an apartment.
A Senior Research Officer with the ESRI has said there is a problem with affordability in the rental sector. David Duffy of the ERSI said while the cost of accommodation is growing at a cost of 10%, peoples’ incomes are not. He also stated that people are probably re-evaluating renting because they have been frightened off owner-occupancy following the crash, which left many people with homes in negative equity. This means he said there is strong demand on the rental time at a time when supply is constrained, putting upward pressure on rents.