Calls for action on vacant housing with just 716 homes for rent across the country

The report revealed that the average market rent nationwide between April and June was €1,618 per month - up 3.3% on the first three months of the year, and 12.6% on the same period last year.

The number of homes available to rent across the country has plunged to a record low of just 716, causing the highest monthly rent increases in more than 15 years.

Just 716 homes were available to rent at the start of this month, down from almost 2,500 a year ago, with rents rising by 12.6% in the same period.

The figures contained in the latest Daft.ie report on the rental market, published on Wednesday morning, is a clarion call for the government to act on vacant homes across the country, according to the Simon Communities of Ireland. Some 166,000 houses in Ireland were found to be vacant in April's census.

The report revealed that the average market rent nationwide between April and June was €1,618 per month - up 3.3% on the first three months of the year, and 12.6% on the same period last year.

According to the report, average rents across the country were:

• Dublin: €2,170, up 12.7% year-on-year 
• Cork city: €1,670, up 11.8% 
• Galway city: €1,663, up 16.4% 
• Limerick city: €1,559, up 17.7% 
• Waterford city: €1,312, up 17.1% 
• Rest of the country: €1,255, up 12.0%. 

Among the 716 houses available for rent across the country on August 1 were 167 in Munster, which the Daft.ie report noted was “one fifth of the average level for the same date in 2015-2019”. 

It says that rents in Limerick are now at 2.5 times the rate of rents in 2012.

According to the report, the rate of increase in the national figure of 12.6% is the highest ever recorded in a Daft.ie survey, since it was launched in 2006. Head of policy with the Simon Communities of Ireland, Wayne Stanley, said the latest data from Daft.ie is shocking.

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He said: “This is a clarion call now for the government to take action on vacant housing. That is the only place now where there is capacity. The constriction in the market has a direct relation to the number of people who are becoming at risk of or experiencing homelessness.” 

Mr Stanley said that it is also very difficult for people who have been given notices to quit their rented accommodation to secure or keep employment.

He continued: “There is work out there but if you have no home, how do you take advantage of a buoyant economy?”

Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin and author of the Daft Report, said that Ireland’s resurgent economy has accentuated the chronic shortage of properties for rent in Ireland.

He said: “While the professional rental sector has added over 7,000 new rental homes in the last five years, this is small relative to the fall of 30,000 in rental listings each year in the traditional rental sector in the same period or the fall of 100,000 listings per year since 2012. 

"The shortage of rental accommodation translates directly into higher market rents and this can only be addressed by significantly increased supply.” 

He said that while there are almost 115,000 proposed rental homes in the pipeline, they will be concentrated in the Dublin area, providing little solace to the under-pressure areas elsewhere in the country.

He added: “Further, while nearly 23,000 are under construction, the remainder are earlier in the process and the growth of legal challenges to new developments presents a threat to addressing the rental scarcity.” 

In response to the call for action on vacant houses, a Department of Housing spokesman said a forthcoming vacant property tax is being developed by the Department of Finance. He said a Zoned Land Tax is replacing the Vacant Site Levy.

He said that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien and his department absolutely acknowledge “the need to tackle the scourge that is vacancy”.