Dublin rents hit record high after 10pc rise nationwide

What freeze on rises? Rents surge spreads beyond Dublin

The cost of renting a house nationally is now €929 a month, up almost €80 in a year (Stock picture)

Charlie Weston

The surge in rental costs is spreading beyond the capital, new figures show.

Rents rose by 10pc in the year up to June, with strong rises outside the capital as well as in Dublin.

This is despite efforts by the last Government to put a two-year freeze on rises.

The monthly cost of renting is now close to €1,000 nationally, according to the Residential Tenancies Board.

In Dublin, rents are at a new high and are now almost 4pc above the previous peak in 2007.

Some 704,000 occupants live in rented accommodation, according to the Residential Tenancies Board, the State body that resolves disputes between tenants and landlords and advises the Government.

The board said rents were 9.9pc higher in the three months up to June compared with the same three-month period last year.

The monthly cost nationally of renting is €956, up €87 a month since last year.

The cost of renting a house nationally is now €929 a month, up almost €80 in a year.

Apartment rents were almost 12pc higher than in the same quarter of 2015, up from €908 to €1,014.

Annual growth in the Dublin market was also strong, up by 9pc from €1,251 to €1,364.

Outside Dublin rents rose by 10.6pc over the year, up from €669 to €740.

Monthly rent for houses outside Dublin increased by almost 10pc, from €688 to €756

Apartments outside Dublin experienced an increase of 12.7pc, from €647 up to €729.

The rent index shows that, nationally rents peaked at the end of 2007, before declining by 25.4pc to a low in 2012.

Director of the RTB Rosalind Carroll, said: "While the previous two quarters have shown a slowdown in the rate of increase in rents, the second quarter of 2016 results show the rate of growth in rents increasing again, particularly in the Dublin market."

She said that adding to the underlying supply and demand imbalance is the return of net inward migration.

Ms Carroll said the trend in new tenancy registrations also reflects the supply shortage. Annual tenancy registrations peaked in 2013, with nearly 112,000 tenancies registered in that year, but that has dipped consecutively in 2014 and 2015, while our overall numbers of registered tenancies have increased.