'Bad news' for renters, who face sharpest rise in cost of new tenancies 

In 20 counties, new rents rose over 10% in the past year and, in 18 counties, new rents are on average above €1,000 a month.

However, for the first time, the RTB was also able to provide data on the rent being paid by existing tenancies in situ for over a year in its data and compare existing tenants with new tenants.

It shows existing tenants are paying on average €242, or 18%, less than renters entering new tenancies.

In Dublin, new tenants are paying €2,102 a month on average, while existing tenants are paying €1,767.

In Cork, new tenants are paying €1,363 a month on average while existing tenancies are paying €1,149 a month, the report said. 

Across the country, more than one in four new tenancies (27%) are costing renters over €2,000 a month. This rises to half of new tenancies costing over €2,000 in Dublin. For existing tenancies, 14% of renters are paying over €2,000, with 28% of renters in Dublin paying above this figure.

“What the report shows is renters continue to get fleeced,” Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said.

“In the middle of the deepest cost-of living-crisis in modern history, it’s really bad news for renters.” 

Rent pressure zones

With the cost of existing tenancies rising 5.3% in the last year, the data could be interpreted to mean that some landlords are flouting the rent pressure zone requirements. These RPZ rules mean that in areas of high rent, landlords can only raise the rent by 2% a year.

However, the ESRI, which prepared the rent index, said it may not necessarily mean RPZ legislation was being flouted.

Associate research professor Conor O’Toole said the index was comparing one set of properties at one period of time to another set of properties at another time, and that plush new build-to-rents included in one index, where rents would be higher, may contribute to the 5.3% increase in existing tenancies.

The RTB indicated it would use this data to help step up its enforcement measures. Lucia Crimin, deputy director of the RTB, said it was quite difficult to tackle the issue of non-compliance without quality data.

“We have that data now, and we’re hopeful for what we can do with that,” she said. “It’s important from a societal perspective to address these potential non-compliances and they need to be dealt with.” 

Mr Ó Broin said while the data did not allow us to see how much of the rise in the cost of renting was down to non-compliance with RPZ requirements,  “some of it absolutely is”.

“The board needs to get more proactive in enforcement both on registration and RPZ,” he said.

“Rents are going only one direction — upwards — at a time when people can’t afford it.”