A chain of viral images shows a big crowd of citizens queuing for hours to view a rental place, illustrating the magnitude of Dublin’s rental crisis. On Tuesday night, a line formed along the street in Drumcondra, where more than 100 people arrived for a house viewing at around 8.30 pm, with another 50 joining in after 30 minutes.
Conor Finn, who posted a video of the long line, said he queued for almost an hour before letting the rental property go. “This is what a house viewing in Dublin now consists of,” he tweeted, alongside photos of people standing along the street. There were over 100 people in the long line of the crowd.
More about Dublin’s rental crisis
Daft.ie, one of Ireland’s best real estate websites, posted a shocking report on the country’s rental market trends. According to the report, which was written by Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin, there were only 716 homes available for rent across the country on August 1st, with fewer than 300 in Dublin.
Dublin had only 335 available offers on August 10, 2022, while Ireland as a whole had 802. According to the data, advertised rental prices were 12.6% higher between April and June of this year compared to the same three-month period last year. This means that prices have risen at the fastest rate since the company’s report began 16 years ago.
Various residents and officers have proposed solutions to the problem. Many people are promoting the Kenny report from 1973, which is a collection of measures that the government must implement. According to the Irish Mirror, doing so will reduce housing costs by roughly 30% while also providing some level of protection to renters.
Ireland’s most damaging crisis as of yet
According to a housing campaigner, the current housing crisis is one of the “longest and most severe” that Ireland has had the chance to face. According to Macdara Doyle, successive governments’ housing policies have failed to address the crisis.
The Raise the Roof campaign announced on 16th August 2022, that it will hold a series of regional and national public meetings on the housing crisis in the coming weeks. The group said at a launch event in Dublin that the meetings will be held to build public support for crisis solutions and alternative housing policies.
The market situation on rental residencies
According to the most recent Daft report, rental property prices in Ireland increased by 3.8% in the following quarter of 2022.
Values are currently 9.5% higher than this time last year, and only 16% lower than the market peak during the Celtic Tiger.
Earlier this month, CSO property price figures revealed a slowing in house price inflation, despite the fact that the average price of a home has risen by more than 14% in the last year.
How is the rental crisis affecting the Irish economy?
Things have taken a turn for the worse after appearing to be stabilizing in the rental market in 2019. Extra supplies are planned, but they are taking longer to arrive for a variety of reasons. Despite rising rents, private landlords are leaving the market. While the pandemic has altered some patterns and increased demand in some areas outside of Dublin, the overall picture of high rents and limited supply remains consistent.
According to the Daft analysis, existing tenants pay lower rents and experience lower rental inflation. High new rental levels, on the other hand, have a significant social and economic impact, delaying housing formation, trapping people in unsuitable housing because they are afraid of breaking an existing rental agreement, and undermining competitiveness.