Rental prices fall to lowest level in almost a decade
Rental prices across the country have fallen by 18pc in the last year to reach their lowest level in almost a decade.
Housing website Daft.ie recorded a 4pc fall in the last three months, with the Dublin market hit harder than anywhere else.
The average rent fell to €771 in October from more than €1,000 a year earlier, according to the survey.
Dublin continued to show the biggest falls, with rent coming down by 5pc during the last three months, the report found.
Static
In some parts of Dublin, rental prices have plummeted by as much as 25pc in the last 18 months, according to Daft.
It said rents in Galway remained static, while prices in Cork and Limerick cities fell by 2.5pc.
Waterford was down almost 4pc, while elsewhere around the country rents fell by an average of 3.8pc, Daft said.
"While the number of properties available to rent is still at an all-time high, these latest price falls are starting to have a positive effect on supply," the online rental agency said.
Ronan Lyons, an economist at Daft, said that the over-supply of property relative to demand was to blame for the fall in rental value.
"In Dublin, the number of properties available to rent fell by almost 8pc in the past three months alone," he said.
"These recent falls in rent have pushed the average rental income back to levels last seen in 2000, which has much wider implications."
But while the news is good for tenants, Mr Lyons said that it would hinder the progress of the Government's bad-bank scheme, the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).
Mr Lyons said, because NAMA is dependent on the property market, the fall in rent means investors will be less eager to pay higher property prices.
Sudden
He explained that the assumption with NAMA is that in 10 years' time, property prices would be at least 10pc above where they are now.
But for that to happen, it would require property prices to bottom out pretty quickly.
"Property prices being up 10pc in 10 years seemed reasonable, but if we went a further 10pc or 15pc down, all of a sudden you need a much bigger percentage increase on the way back up," he said.
