Rent drops may help hard-pressed consumers

Consumers could save an average of €133 a month in 2009 due to falling rent prices, it was claimed today.

A survey by the daft.ie website forecast that most rents could plummet by up to 15% this year due to an oversupply of properties in the market.

The average monthly rent nationally now stands at €885, down from around €1,000 for this time last year.

The number of rental properties on the market more than doubled from 10,000 to 21,000 in the past 12 months.

Daft.ie economist Ronan Lyons said: “With such levels of oversupply in the market, we can expect average rents to fall by between 10-15% this year.”

The Daft Rental Report is based on an analysis of all rental properties advertised on daft.ie since January 2002 including 200,000 posted since January 2008.

South Co Dublin was the worst affected area last year with the average rent falling more than 15%.

The falls in Cork city and Limerick city were 10% while the reductions for Galway and Waterford were 6% and 4% respectively.

Outside the major cities, rent for the same period dropped by 8%.

Daft said falling rents will make life a little easier for people who face salary cuts or possible job losses.

“Many workers around the country could be expecting wage cuts of around 10% this year, which means they will be looking for savings in their day-to-day expenditure,” said Mr Lyons.

“Falling rents and falling mortgage repayments will make a significant contribution to this,” he said.

He continued: “The latest figures from this report suggests that the average person renting could pay €1,600 less this year.

“Falling interest rates also mean that the average mortgage holder, on a €300,000 variable mortgage over 35 years, could save more than twice as much - over €3,400.”