Mayo rents rise by 16% in one year

THE cost of renting a home in Mayo has risen by 16% in the past year, with rental availability hitting an all-time low.

A new report from daft.ie shows rents in Connaught rose 15.1% year-on-year, reflecting a sharp fall in availability - just 102 homes were available to rent on August 1, down over 60% compared to a year ago.

In Mayo, rents were on average 15.8% higher in the second quarter of 2021 than a year previously. The average listed rent is now €847, up 64% from its lowest point.

Nationally, rents have increased by 5.6% - the strongest year-on-year increase since mid-2019.

And national rental supply has hit an all time low with only 2,455 rental homes available across the country - the lowest number on record, with less than 800 rental homes available outside Dublin.

On average over the past 15 years, there have been nearly 9,400 homes available to rent at any one time, while the 2015-2019 average was almost 3,900.

Commenting on the report, Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity College Dublin and author of the Daft Report, said: “As the impact of Covid-19 on daily life begins to recede, the underlying issues facing Ireland’s rental sector are re-emerging.

“It is a sector facing unprecedented shortages, with extraordinarily tight supply: to give just two examples of many, there were just 15 homes available to rent in Waterford, city and county, on August 1 and only eight in all of Offaly.

“Ireland’s rental sector has undergone a lost decade and half, with almost no new rental homes built. This cannot be solved by trying to regulate prices. It can only be solved by adding significant amounts of new supply - and not only in Dublin. In that regard, policymakers - and citizens - should be wary of anything that limits the ability of foreign savers to build new rental homes here.”