Rents Fall By 5% This Year

Rental costs in 2009 have so far fallen by 5%, according to a recent survey.

Influential property website Daft.ie said rental costs around the country have slumped due the drop in housing sales.

As less houses are sold, more properties are being put up for rent. This has led to an increase in landlords who are competing with each other for tenants and driving the rent prices down.

The report indicates the average national rent is now €840 a month, representing0 a fall of 5% since the start of the year and a 16% drop since January last year.

The largest falls in the first quarter of this year have been in Dublin and Limerick city, where rents dropped by a slightly higher rate of 6%.

Daft.ie analyst Brian Devine said the withdrawal of buyers from the market has contributed to the fall in rent prices.

"People are simply avoiding losses by withdrawing from property transactions. A shift in psychology rather than simply an upturn in incomes and growth is needed to trigger a mass-return of buyers to the market," he said.

Rents nationwide have now fallen for 14 months in a row and are 17.5% lower than the peak in early 2008.

Meanwhile, the number of properties for rent is at an all-time high of 23,000, according to the website's report. The report also says that there is little reason to believe that house prices will not continue to fall.

(DW/BMcC)