Rents are rising, according to agents, especially for contemporary apartments in the right location, but there is still value to be found, writes Edel Morgan
This year has seen the return of the landlord's market. Rents have risen by up to 10 to 12 per cent per cent in parts of Dublin with some agents claiming that rents for top-spec apartments in the most sought-after locations have increased by as much as 20-30 per cent.
With house prices slowing, all eyes are on rental sector. At the start of 2007, rents were rising at the fastest rate since October 2001, according to Goodbody stockbrokers. Demand is such that, for young professionals insisting on being in the hub of things in shiny new apartments, there's a premium to be paid.
Dublin docklands is regarded by many young professionals as the ideal place to live from a lifestyle point of view but rents are often upwards of €2,000 a month for a two-bed apartment with a parking space and waiting lists are not uncommon.
In newly-built Spencer Dock, where Sherry FitzGerald Lettings is launching new apartments, the rents go up to €2,350 depending on the size of the apartment and where it is located in the building. Kathrina Cahill of Home Locators says there is a major interest in two and three-bedroom penthouses with rents of €2,000-€3,000 in new docklands developments such as Gallery Quay. "The corporate market is buoyant in this price range but properties in the €5,000-€8,000 bracket are slow. The city centre is buoyant, as are areas along the Dart and Luas with good access to town, such as Dundrum which didn't get a look in before."
Cahill has noticed a shift in attitude towards renting. "With high interest rates, and a slow housing market, the rental culture is becoming more and more acceptable."
Sarah Butler of Sherry FitzGerald Lettings says the scarcity means a nice apartment will let whether it's in an older block or not. "It also comes down to affordability. You will get people who want to live there if the rent is good and if it's near good transport links."
According to Butler, the apartment market is still mostly the domain of young professionals and childless couples but she has let two-bed apartments to foreign nationals with children. "They largely come from European cities where families are used to living in apartments and they go for an apartment close to where the children go to school or the parents work."
Further out of town, she says upmarket two-bed apartments at the Grange in Stillorgan, which comes with a concierge, cost €1,800 a month. One-beds are commanding strong rents there, too, at €1,500. "For couples who want to live in a posh complex but want to economise on rent, one-beds are a popular option," says Butler.
Two-bedroom apartments with a car-parking space at the upmarket Bloomfield Park in Donnybrook cost upwards of €2,000.
Beacon South Quarter in Sandyford, which also has a concierge, is popular, with two-beds at €1,800 a month and one-beds at €1,500.
Butler says tenants who are paying top rents generally expect a place that comes equipped with a dishwasher, good oven, microwave, flat screen TV and broadband. The areas of Dublin 1, 4, 6, 15 and 18 and south Co Dublin have seen some of the highest increases in rents. Some industry analysts reckon that rents have peaked as tenants' ability to pay has been reached. Rents in Dublin commuter towns have suffered as tenants choose the more affordable west Dublin suburbs.
Demand has been fuelled by the influx of migrants. While we are not back to the days of queuing around the block, numbers attending viewings have increased to an average of around five or six per viewing, according to estate agents.
Rising interest rates and low yields have meant investors are lying low but properties are finding their way onto the rental market by default when their owners can't sell for the price they want and they decide to let instead. People are seeing older apartment complexes with new eyes because they represent a more affordable option.
At Packenham in Monkstown, near the Dart, a two-bed lets for around €1,500 a month. In the city centre, in older blocks such as Harcourt Green in Charlemont Place, you can rent a two-bed apartment for considerably less than a new one at €1,700. At Earlsfort Court in Lower Hatch Street, a two-bed costs around €1,800.
Mary McGarry Murphy of Wyse agrees that the one-bed market is buoyant and says she recently let one (with no parking) in Custom House Square in the north inner city for €1,100, up from €950 last year.
In Clarion Quay in the docklands a two-bed home with parking costs €1,900 and in Smithfield a two-bed with no parking is around €1,600.
On the northside, apartments in Raheny, Clontarf and Beaumont, near the hospital, are renting well. A two-bed in Temple Court in Santry Demesne is letting at around €1,300 and near the hospital in Beaumont tenants pay around €1,275-€1,300.
Two-beds at Tolka Vale, between Finglas and Glasnevin, cost €1,350.
West Dublin still represents good value with a Blanchardstown two-bed letting at €1,200-€1,250 and one-beds renting out for upwards of €900.
"Everything is moving at the moment," says McGarry Murphy. "Unless the owners haven't refurbished properly. Newer apartments rent out more quickly so landlords of older properties need to be realistic."
Tenants are emerging from a four-year period when they could call the shots. Expectations have been raised and tenants demand quality and a landlord who is on their toes in the maintenance department. The establishment of the Private Rented Tenancies Board (PRTB) has helped raise standards as has the increase in supply of more spacious apartments.
But while there's been a definite shift in power towards the landlord, it is not to the same degree as the last landlord's market between 1999 and 2002 - before the reintroduction of mortgage interest relief - when even the tiniest shoe-boxes were eminently lettable due to a shortage of supply.
