A property rental market within the rental market

Property rental agencies and landlords need to be conscious that subletting could become very attractive in the current market. Conor Power reports

Property rental agencies and landlords are keenly aware that subletting could become a growing trend in the current market.

For renters who have been in tenancies prior to last March, many of them have remained in arrangements where they’re paying less than the current market levels. 

Letting is a two-way arrangement, however, and the price isn’t the only consideration. For someone letting their property, having reliable tenants that they have a strong business relationship with is worth far more than maximising their weekly or monthly take whilst having to go through the process of re-letting the property again and again.

“That can be especially good for those tenants who have been renting for over five years in Cork, for example,” says Pauline O’Sullivan of Prime Letting & Management Ltd. “They’re probably the only people who are now paying below-market rent. They would be slow to move out of those properties, understandably.

“Something that the agencies and landlords need to be conscious of is that subletting will be very attractive… we haven’t seen it happen but in carrying out inspections of tenancies, it’s something that we’re very much aware of and which we haven’t had too much before this time.” 

 There’s no doubt that such rare tenancies from the rent-control era will now be valuable commodities that may be traded to a certain degree; particularly where it’s a case of rents that could be as much as 70% cheaper than the going rate.

“Essentially, what you have now in Cork city is a two-tier market,” says Cormac Aherne of Choices Lettings & Property Management. “In tenancies where the tenants have left voluntarily, prices are at market rate and are very high. Then you have people who are in situ for a number of years on a much lower rate. You often have a situation where you have two similar properties side-by-side; one two-bed apartment could be paying €1,300/month and an apartment next door which has been let since March 2026 could be fetching €2,500/month.” 

 Anomalies to these existed in the marketplace before, however, and with rent controls now effectively taken out of the equation, it’s only a matter of time before such anomalies naturally die out of the rental market.

Orla O’Donovan, director of Trading Places in Cork acknowledges that rents are now very high but feels that we are also at a turning point and that levels are likely to decrease from now on. There is a certain amount of negotiating coming into play as new tenancies are being settled, with a feeling on both sides that the most important thing is a tenancy that will survive its course of time. And of course, there may be that elusive supply of property coming along in the coming years to bring some balance to the situation.

“We are seeing the highest rents to date at the moment, but I do think we’re at the peak of it,” says Orla. “I’ve heard people say that it’s going to increase again over the next 12 months, but I don’t think that… I think it’s levelled off for sure. Affordability can only go so far.”