Rents Rise And Supply Falls With 1 Rental Property Available In Carrigaline Area.
Writes Ciaran Dineen
Reports for Q4 of 2021 offer grim reading for the state of the housing market with huge year on year increases in rent and a record low in terms of supply according to the latest Daft.ie quarterly report.
The latest figures compiled by the property website for the final quarter of 2021 show that rents nationwide rose at an annual rate of 10%. Rents in Cork City for a 3-bed house are now averaging a cost of €1490 a month, while a similarly sized residential property will set you back an average of €1,246 in Cork County, with both 3 and 4-bed properties seeing an average of 9% increases.
However, it would appear that in reality the average rent outside of Cork City is much greater than that indicated in this report, which was authored by TCD Associate Professor, Ronan Lyons. Based on research conducted by The Carrigdhoun Newspaper assessing available properties within a five-kilometre radius of the Carrigaline and surrounding area, the average price typically ranged from a whopping €1,500 to €1,800 a month for a 3-bed house.
Supply issues are driving up the price of those few available properties to rent across the country, with under 1,500 residential units appearing on the Daft.ie website, the lowest amount since their records began in 2006.
Despite the urgent need to supply housing units, the Central Statistics Office have indicated in their recently published dwellings completions quarterly review, that over 5% fewer properties were built in Q4 2021 compared to that of Q4 2020.
Scheme dwellings dropped 17.4% from 4,124 in Q4 2020 to 3,406 in Q4 2021. There was also a drop of 8.7% for this dwelling type for the full year, from 11,664 in 2020 to 10,644 in 2021. There was also a drop in single dwellings for the quarter and the year. From 1,519 single completions in Q4 2020, there was a fall of 9.5% to 1,374 in Q4 2021. For the year, there was a decrease of 5.3% from 4,942 in 2020 to 4,682 in 2021.
Part of the reason for the year-on-year fall in completions was due to the closure of construction sites at the beginning of the year as part of public health restrictions. Towards the end of 2021, Taoiseach Micheál Martin expressed his regret over such decisions to close the sector, with Ireland being the only country in Europe to do so.
Closer to home the availability of properties in the areas of Carrigaline, Crosshaven, Passage West, Monkstown and Ballygarvan area is virtually non-existent. As of Friday 11th February there was not one single house available to rent in Carrigaline, with the closest availability being a 2-bed apartment for rent at €1400 a month two miles outside the town.
On further inspection of the website’s offerings, it would appear that just 9 properties are available to rent out fully within a 3km radius of Carrigaline, as provided by the Daft.ie. The majority of these residential units are in parts of Douglas with just one house available to rent in Passage West at a cost of €1800 per month for a 3-bed, while one 4-bed is available in Monkstown for €2500.
Based on recent posts on various online noticeboards in the area, property search has never been so bleak. Cries for help are now a regular occurrence online with anxious families doing everything possible to find basic rental accommodation, willing to pay upwards of €1700 a month.