Rents rocket in Meath
Rents in Meath have rocketed by 16.7 per cent in the past year, while over the past three years the cost of renting in county has risen by almost 50 per cent.
The latest quarterly Rental Price Report from Daft.ie show that the average rent in Meath was €1,081 for the first quarter of this year, up from €926 for the same period last year. It was one of counties with the fastest rising rents, just behind Louth which saw an increase of 18.3 per cent in the past year.
Meath is now the fourth most expensive county in the country to rent in, behind Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.
In the first quarter of 2014, the average cost of renting in Meath was €731 per month. Fast forward three years and this figure has jumped by 49 per cent or €350 to €1,081. Rents are now 67 per cent above their lowest point in the county.
Nationally, the average rent rose by 13.4 per cent in the year to March 2017.
According to Daft, there were just 3,084 properties available to rent nationwide on May 1st. This is the second lowest number on record, in a series that starts in January 2006.
Commenting on the report, Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity College Dublin and author of the Daft Report, said: “While the headline rate of inflation in rents has eased slightly, the market continues to exhibit signs of extreme distress. Rents are at a new all-time high, while the number of homes available to rent remains at the lowest levels on record.
“Regulatory measures designed to limit rent increases could only ever have a very limited effectiveness in a market with such a scarcity of supply. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that rent increases for sitting tenants have been only half the size of increases faced by new tenants. The more appropriate solution remains to increase supply. This includes both making better use of the existing stock of housing and building substantially more, in particular more apartments.”
Commenting on the figures, Sinn Féin TD Peadar Tóibín said: “Meath Rents have increased by 16.7 per cent in the last year, making them the fastest growing rents in the country. Despite the Minister of State for Housing Damien English coming from County Meath, tenants are getting hammered by exorbitant rents.
“Housing is a key need of all families, but increasingly housing affordability either through rent or purchase is out of reach for regular normal families. This is a crisis of epic proportions as 4,000 people remain on housing lists in Meath, hundreds of families find themselves living with relations or friends and dozens of families find themselves living in emergency accommodation. Trim Court is still choc-a-bloc with the collateral damage of the last housing crash weaving themselves through the legal system.
“The Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael Rent Pressure Zones are obviously inadequate where they exist but shockingly towns such as Navan, Trim and Kells, in the county with the highest rent increases are excluded.'