Rent costs continue gradual rise, but still below pre-Covid levels

Private rents continued their gradual rise in January.

Residential rents continued their marginal increase last month, but are still significantly down from the beginning of the Covid crisis, CSO figures show.

Private rental costs crept up by 0.3% in January, on a month-by-month basis. October was the last month to see a monthly drop in private rents, when prices fell by 0.5%. But that was followed by no movement in November and a 0.4% increase in December.

However, the latest CSO figures show that private rents are still 2.5% down compared to the start of last year. That year-on-year decline rate is also slowing, however. October showed a 3.2% year-on-year fall in rental costs, while the annualised fall was just under 3% in December.

Meanwhile, mortgage interest rates fell by 0.1% in January; but were up by 1.5% when measured on a year-on-year basis.

Overall consumer prices fell by 0.2%, on a year-on-year basis in January, but rose by 0.1% on a monthly basis, the CSO said.

The most notable annual price falls were seen across clothing and footwear, transport, food, and household equipment. The largest annual price increases were in health and hospitality.

The price of alcohol and tobacco jumped nearly 4% on a monthly basis, the most significant rise since December.

January of last year saw a 0.7% monthly fall in consumer prices.