The latest Irish Rental Price Report for the third quarter of 2017 has been released by Daft.ie today. The report shows that rents rose by 3.4% between the second and third quarters of 2017, the strongest quarterly rise since the same quarter a year ago and one of the fve largest quarterly increases in the report’s history.
  
Both in Dublin and elsewhere, rents have now risen by more than 10% for six quarters in a row - once again, the increase in Dublin (12.3%) is above that for the rest of the country (10.1%).  
  
There were fewer than 3,400 properties available to rent nationwide on November 1st, down over 16% on the same date a year ago, although up slightly from the 2,900 available on August 1st.  
  
According to the report, the average rent nationwide has risen by 61% since bottoming out in late 2011 and, having exceeded its 2008 peak in 2016, is now 16.4% above the previous high. In Dublin, rents are now an average of 22.8% above their previous peak while in Cork and Galway cities, rents are 13% and 25% above levels recorded a decade ago. Outside the cities, the average rent is 8.7% above its previous peak.
  
The 3.9% increase in the third quarter means that the four largest increases in rents this decade have taken place in the last six quarters.  
  
There were fewer than 1,300 properties available to rent in Dublin on November 1st, 13.6% lower than on the same date in 2016. Room costs continue to rise. The cost of a single or double room in Dublin rose by an average of over 7% in the year to September.

Commenting on the report, the author and Assistant Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin, Ronan Lyons said, "The figures from this Daft.ie Rental Price Report do not make for happy reading for tenants, those worried about homelessness and those whose focus is national competitiveness. Having fallen for almost three years between 2008 and 2011, and then largely treading water until late 2012, rents have now risen for 21 consecutive quarters. The upswing in rents is now not only significantly longer than the preceding downturn but also than the upswing before that downturn, which lasted from mid-2004 until early 2008."

He added, "An objective reader will have concerns not just that the trend is persistent but also shows no signs of ameliorating. An optimist might point out that the annual rate of inflation in rents nationally has eased from 13.4% at the start of the year to 11.2% now. An obvious rebuttal is that the rate of inflation remains - for the sixth quarter in a row - stubbornly above 10%. In addition, the quarterly increase in rents between June and September was 3.4%, the fourth largest ever recorded."

Source: www.businessworld.ie