Rent prices in Donegal have increased by almost 20% in just one year as supply plummets, Daft.ie reports.
The average price of rent in the county is now €784 per month.
That’s 19.7% higher than last November, and 5.4% higher than the summer months.
Daft’s latest quarterly report confirms a return to the pre-Covid-19 situation of weak supply in the face of very strong demand, due to underlying economic and demographic growth.
There were just 172 homes available to rent in Connacht & Ulster on November 1, the lowest ever in a series extending back to 2006 – the pre-Covid average during 2019 was 600.
The average rent for a 2-bed house in Donegal is up 20.3% to €661, while a 3-bed house is up 18.3% to €746.
The cost of a single or double room in Connacht-Ulster rose by roughly 9% on average in the year to November 2021.
Report author Ronan Lyons said: “The Covid-19 shock in early 2020 saw a halt to inflation everywhere but since then rents outside Dublin have risen by significantly more than rents in the capital.
“But Dublin is still 80% more expensive than non-city rents, a higher premium than in 2006 or 2007.”
One of the solutions, according to Mr Lyons, is building more rental homes.
“To make rental accommodation more affordable, we need to put in the hard effort of building lots of new rental homes. (This need not be the only solution, of course ‐ it is in addition to, rather than instead of, new homes for owner-occupiers and new social housing.)
“It is instructive that ‐ even within that 1995-2020 period of rising rents, rents were largely stable 1999-2008 and no higher in 2012 than in 1997. Why? Lots of new rental homes were built in the 2000s.”
