Rents not hiked ahead of regulation
Ronan Lyons, assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Trinity College Dublin, said an analysis of 2,500 sample rental properties showed while rents in the capital did increase, on average, by 1.3%, it was not statistically significant.
Rents outside Dublin meanwhile, rose 0.1% based on the same property sample. There had been fears that some landlords would seek to push up rents as quickly as possible once the Government had signalled its intention to increase an element of rent certainty into the market.
A separate analysis of several hundred properties showed, in the 10-day period after word first emerged of concrete proposals, that there had been a 1.4% average increase in rent.
The broader analysis indicates it did not become a national trend.
Regarding possible rent increases, Prof Lyons said: “If they did that they did it over the summer when it was unclear what rent controls were going to come in.”
However, he said while there were about 6,500 properties available for rent in November 2014, the comparable figure last month was 5,500.
“There is a 10% to 15% reduction in what is coming on the market. The market is getting tighter,” he said
The legislation for the new rent certainty measures was due to complete its passage through the Oireachtas yesterday, meaning the new regulations could be in place before Christmas.
However, a meeting in Cork on Tuesday night, organised by the Irish Property Owners Association and attended by 100 landlords, heard concerns raised about the new regulations, with some claiming the plans were unworkable.
The new regulations include a 90-day notice period regarding any increase in rents and rent reviews limited to every second year.
However, the association’s Margaret McCormick said other elements of the plan, in particular the requirement for the landlord to equate any proposed rent rise with the rental costs of three comparable properties within a four-week period, would have a detrimental effect on the rental market.
“It is seriously flawed”, she said of the Government’s plans, claiming the rules would involve extra costs to any landlord which would mean an increase in the number of landlords simply abandoning the rental market. The association has claimed there are 40,000 fewer properties on the market now compared with 2011, and also fewer investment properties entering the market.
Meanwhile, Co-operative Housing Ireland’s ‘Housing Sentiment Survey’, to be published today, will illustrate the scale of the housing crisis, with 32% of tenants nationally and almost half of those in Dublin fearful of losing their homes. The survey will also show one third of tenants spend more than 40% of net income on rent and that one quarter of moves are due to high rents.
Respondents also said it was becoming more difficult to find accommodation and 58% had given up on the idea of owning their own home.
Almost three-quarters of people questioned in Dublin said they anticipated rent increases in the next 18 months.
