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Dublin: 12 °C Wednesday 19 June, 2013

Rental accommodation options for students fall again this summer

Latest Daft.ie report shows rent rises in Dublin and Cork since last year, and a drop in available rental properties nationwide.

Image: Bill Ward's Brickpile via Creative Commons

RENTAL PRICES IN Ireland were 0.5 per cent lower nationwide in Q2 2012 than for the same period of last year, according to the latest rental report from property website Daft.ie.

Over the past year, rents have continued to rise in Dublin and Cork, but have fallen elsewhere.

Since Q2 2011, rents are up 2 per cent in Dublin, up 1.7 per cent in Cork and 0.2 per cent higher in Galway. Rents fell by 4.5 per cent in Waterford and 0.9 per cent in Limerick cities.

Meanwhile, outside the cities, rents have fallen by between 1.3 per cent and 3.5 per cent in the year between the second quarter of 2011 and 2012.

The report’s author Ronan Lyons says that the number of available rental properties continues to fall.

“This is the third summer in a row where there were fewer properties available to rent nationwide at any one time,” he said. “This is particularly the case in Dublin, which means that some propective tenants may find that they have to live further out than expected.”

Overall, there were 12 per cent fewer properties available to rent on 1 August than last year.

Property Rental in Ireland

Image: Daft.ie

Students

Commenting on the Daft.ie rental report, USI president John Logue said that while rental options and prices for students have improved since the recession began, this data “shows a more nuanced rent market than we have seen in some years”.

The narrative of this Daft.ie Quarterly Report is one that mirrors the growing disparity between the economic situation in rural and large urban areas,” Logue said. “While rent prices have leveled off and, indeed, are increasing marginally in large urban areas, rural areas are still experiencing falling rent prices, albeit at a more modest rate than in previous years.”

“However, rents in Dublin are still down 25 per from their peak in 2007, meaning students now are still at a significant advantage to their beleaguered boom-time peers.”

Logue’s commentary on the rental report also offers advice to students who are currently seeking accommodation, including to ensure that their landlord is registered with the PRTB and that tax relief can be claimed on rent.

Students

Graph: Daft.ie

Disclosure: Daft.ie and TheJournal.ie are part of the Distilled Media Group.

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Comments (13 Comments)

  • And don’t expect any real or at least swift help from the PRTB. They’re inundated and most cases take so long you give up out of frustration and hey presto the landlord wins and keeps your deposit. The law is still set up to be on the side of the landlord not the tenant.

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  • There shouldn’t be any shortage of accommodation – there’s plenty of lego for everyone!

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  • Not all landlords will keep your deposit. Iv always got mine back. Also be wary of rent which includes your bills. In some cases it can work out more expensive.

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  • One bit of advice for students. Don’t expect to get your deposit back. Landlords see this as their own personal money. Even when you leave the place in better condition than you moved in they will still try and keep it. Factor the cost of deposit into the annual rent.

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  • In general I’ve always gotten my deposit back. I’m an excellent tenant and have lived with similar people. But it was that one landlord who showed the system up for what it was. We reported him to Daft.ie, when he hiked the rent for a second year in a row, without fixing or addressing anything in the house, we said we’d leave, he then loaded fake pics on the site. And when people came to view he feigned surprise at the things that were amiss claiming we’d never highlighted them to him. He was unbelievable – a caricature of the archetypal evil landlord. He laughed when we cited the PRTB. I hope he got his cumuppence when the property bubble burst. I wish there was a ‘Rate my landlord’ website.

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  • Agree completely with Jenna about the law being on their side. The PRTB should be tasked with holding deposits. If there is a dispute over a deposit then the landlord has to bring a case to them and visa versa. It should be made illegal for a landlord to take a deposit and hold it themselves.

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  • Da Ptrb’s staff was almost halved in da past few years meaning disputes take nearly two years before there seen. Would agree that there should be a deposit retention scheme in place but logitically it would be a non runner plus landlords have it so easy at the moment there’d be a revoltultion if the government tried to put it in place. Landlords and property management companies see student deposits as easy money…

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