20% drop in available rental properties in just three months

The latest Locked out of the Market report found that 82% of available rental properties are in Dublin City.

There has been a 20% reduction in the number of available affordable properties to rent across the country in just three months, a new report has found.

The latest Locked out of the Market report, published by the Simon Communities of Ireland on Wednesday, found the private rental sector is characterised by a “chronic lack of affordable” accommodation.

The charity surveyed 16 areas on June 21, 22 and 23, and found there were 2,208 properties available to rent, a decrease of one fifth from the 2,757 properties available in the March 2021 report. The figure also represents a further 27% decrease on the 3,019 properties available in the December 2020 study.

Supply is “overwhelmingly” driven by Dublin, the Simon Communities said, with 82% of available rental properties being found in Dublin City.

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The report also examined the number of properties available under social housing support, the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), which is available to tenants seeking to rent accommodation, the cost of which falls under “rent limits” outlined in statutory regulations.

The rent limit varies depending on location and household type, though discretion of up to 50% may be provided, on a case-by-case basis, where a household cannot find suitable accommodation within these limits.

The Simon Communities found there were 906 properties available under a standard or discretionary limit in at least one of the four household categories, representing 41% of the total properties available. This represents a 14% decrease on the 1,055 properties which were available within at least one HAP category in the December study.

There were just 63 instances of those properties coming within a standard HAP rate in one of the four categories; the rest of the properties within HAP rates required the discretionary HAP top up. There were no properties available within standard HAP limits for a single person and only 78 were found within the discretionary limits.

Nearly 97% (875) of all HAP properties across the 16 study areas were located in the three Dublin areas.

There were no properties available within the limits in Athlone, Galway City Centre, Galway City Suburbs, Leitrim, Limerick City Centre, Limerick City Suburbs, Sligo Town, Portlaoise and Waterford City Centre.

The Simon Communities of Ireland said the Covid-19 pandemic caused a "year of upheaval in the private rental sector", with the introduction of additional private rental market protections such as the rent freeze, moratorium on evictions and the general ‘stay-at-home’ order.

There is also a social time bomb ticking of renters in their 50s and 60s, hitting retirement and facing the prospect of being unable to afford the rent.
Will they be forced to retire into homelessness?https://t.co/nDiwDTnr7P

— Rory Hearne (@RoryHearneGaffs) August 3, 2021

“It also led initially to an influx of properties which had been used on the short-term tourism market onto the private rental market," the charity said.

"Nevertheless, the private rental market continues to be characterised by a chronic lack of affordable private rental accommodation.” 

The most recent statistics from the Department of Housing showed there were 8,014 people accessing emergency accommodation in June 2021, an increase of 23 on the previous month, though still lower than the same month last year.

A recent report by Daft.ie showed average rents rose by 5.6% in the second quarter of the year when compared to the same time last year, a situation which has been blamed on a shortage of available properties.