The growing cost of renting a home in the Dublin region is "worrying" and impacting on the affordability of living in the capital, said the director of the Private Residential Tenancies Board.
Anne Marie Caulfield was reacting to the latest quarterly rent index which shows rents have increased by over 10 per cent in Dublin in the past year.
Rents for apartments in the capital have risen by more than in any other part of the State and at a greater rate than rents for houses.
The average monthly rent for a house in Dublin is now €1,275 and €1,134 for an apartment. These figures represent a 12.1 per cent increase for apartments and an 8.5 per cent increase for houses, when comparing rents in the second three months of this year as compared with the same period last year.
In contrast rent increases outside Dublin have been more muted, at 2.6 per cent when compared with the second three months of last year.
Again, increases were greater for apartments – at 3.2 per cent – than the 2.4 per cent for houses over the period.
The average monthly rent for a house, from March to June, outside Dublin was €648, and €640 for an apartment.
The data comes from the Quarterly Rent Index of the PRTB which operates a national rent register, in conjunction with the Economic and Social Research Institute, of rents being paid, as opposed to being sought in “to let” advertisements.
Nationally rents rose by 3 per cent in the second quarter of the year, compared with the first, with Dublin rents up 4.9 per cent compared with 1.7 per cent in the rest of the country.
The private rented sector is a hugely important part of the housing infrastructure, for both private individual households and for the State.
The sector doubled in size between 2006 and 2011 and now 77,000 households that are dependent on rent supplement and 30,000 in the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) are in the sector.
“The PRTB will be submitting a strategy for the private rented sector to the Minister in the near future which will examine measures to increase supply, improve affordability and ensure that standards are adhered to,” Ms Caulfield said.
Despite the increases in rents across the country, they remain almost 20 per cent lower than they were at their peak in late 2007.
Dublin rents are 12.7 per cent lower than at the peak. Rents for houses nationally are 22.3 per cent lower than they were seven years ago. They are 11.7 per cent lower in Dublin and 25.2 per cent lower outside Dublin.
All landlords are legally obliged to register tenancies with the PRTB.
There were 25,500 new registrations with the board in the second three months of this year.
