Domestic rents are set to climb by as much as 14 per cent in some of the State’s major urban centres over the next two years, having fallen by 25 per cent since 2008, according to property consultants Savills Ireland.
The company said today rents had started to rise in the latter part of this year and predicted the pattern would continue between now and 2013. .
“Despite a significant increase in the supply of rental accommodation into Ireland’s rental pool over the past ten years, when over 150,000 additional properties were supplied to the rental market, shortages are now evident in the main cities,” said Ronan O’Driscoll, director of residential property at Savills Ireland.
He said rents in Dublin for a two-bedroom apartment varied between €900 and €1,200 per month and predicted that this would increase by 10 per cent in the next two years in some more popular residential areas.
He said there was a particular shortage of houses in the rental market and an average three-bedroom house in a suburban location in Dublin is currently achieving €1,400 per month. “We predict this will increase to €1,600 per month in the next two years,” he said.
Savills claims that if the rent subsidy is restructured in the budget, rents at the lower end of the market would be maintained at current levels.
The company said people were struggling to secure mortgage finance and pointed out that even couples with good jobs were finding it difficult to secure a suitable mortgage, leaving renting their only option.
