Leitrim rents driven up by people leaving cities during pandemic

A shortage of rental properties in Co Leitrim has meant that many young adults who fled from higher rents in cities during the Covid-19 lockdowns are still living with their parents a year on, local politicians say.

Rents in the county have risen at one of the sharpest rates in the State, with the latest Daft.ie report indicating they are up 21.6 per cent since the third quarter of last year, to an average of €742.

The lack of available accommodation is such, according to Cllr Enda Stenson, that if the former MBNA plant in Carrick-on-Shannon, currently on the market at €6.6 million, was to be bought by a major employer, it would struggle for staff who could find places to live.

“If a big US company came in and wanted to create hundreds of jobs we just don’t have the accommodation,” he said, adding that many natives who returned to the county during the pandemic were having similar problems.

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“A lot came home and a lot are still working from home, but it is their mother and father’s home. I personally know 10 people in that situation who are living with their parents because they have no other option.”

Estate agent Liam Farrell said the average rents cited in the Daft report seemed quite low given what he was seeing in places such as Carrick-on-Shannon.

“We are quoting €1,490 for a five-bedroom house in Carrick at the moment in a very good location,” he said, adding that a similar property would have commanded €1,250 to €1,300 per month a year ago.

He attributed the rent increases to Leitrim people returning to the county as they wanted to be nearer family during the pandemic and also to greater interest from abroad.

“There is no question about it, Covid and the ability to work from home has had an impact on demand,” he said. “People reassessed their lives during the first lockdown and, as we have seen, people flee cities like London and Paris as well as Dublin.”

He said people questioned why they should continue to cover “silly rents in Dublin” given remote working had become an option and they could pay €750 or €800 a month “for a waterside penthouse apartment in Leitrim”.

Mr Farrell said his office was receiving a couple of inquiries from people based in Germany every week, which had not happened before in his two decades in the business.

Tax breaks

Sligo-based estate agent John Murphy, who rents properties in Tubbercurry as well as in Sligo town, said while tax breaks in rural towns in the region meant there was plenty of availability 10 years ago, this was no longer the case.

“People were buying second properties as an investment and renting them out in places like Tubbercurry because they weren’t paying tax on them, but that has all changed,” he said.

Mr Murphy said a property he would have let for €350 a month three years ago in Tubbercurry now cost €600, with a lack of supply the key price driver.

Sinéad Walsh, rental manager with Oates Breheny Group in Sligo, questioned how rents could have increased by, for example, 18.4 per cent for a two-bed house in the county given prices are meant to be capped in Sligo town and Strandhill, which are rent pressure zones (RPZs).

She said villages outside the RPZs such as Ballisodare and Enniscrone were currently highly sought-after areas.

Ronan Lyons, associate professor in economics at Trinity College Dublin and an author of the Daft.ie report, said RPZs in reality did not give much protection in such places, as people were probably not in a position to challenge landlords on prices given the lack of availability.

He noted that rents had risen from a low base in counties such as Leitrim and Sligo and that while these “seemed very attractive “ to people used to city prices, the increases were considerable for people who have been living in the county throughout and “seen rents double over 10 years”.