Border and midlands continue to have low rents

As of Q1 2020, Cavan (€673), Donegal (€606), Leitrim (€550), Longford (€662), Mayo, Monaghan (€656) and Roscommon all had standardised average rents below €700 per month.

The border and midlands counties continue to have the lowest rents.

The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) has published real-time analysis as part of the regular RTB Rent Index series that examines the short-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on private rental prices in Ireland.

The RTB Rent Index series analysis, ‘Exploring the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Rental Prices in Ireland from January to June 2020: Early Insights from a Monthly Rent Index’, was undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

It was published yesterday (Thursday, July 16) with the regular quarterly Rent Index for the January-March period (Q1) of 2020.

The RTB Rent Index is based on actual rents paid on 20,878 tenancies registered with the RTB in the quarter, which is made up of housing stock new to the rental sector, new tenancies in existing housing stock and renewals of existing tenancies.

The analysis shows that the annual growth rate of rent amounts declined significantly compared to the period prior to the lockdown.

While the annual growth rate in March was over 3%, by April this had fallen to 0.4%, and it declined again in May to 0.1%. By June, the annual growth rate had turned negative with prices falling by 3.3% compared to the same month the previous year.

As of Q1 2020, Cavan (€673), Donegal (€606), Leitrim (€550), Longford (€662), Mayo, Monaghan (€656) and Roscommon all had standardised average rents below €700 per month.

The county with the lowest standardised average rent was Leitrim, some €1,185 per month lower than rents in Dublin.

While rental price levels were highest in Dublin and the surrounding counties, annual growth varied across the country in Q1 2020.

Two counties (Kildare and Longford) had annualised growth rates above 10 per cent in Q1 2020. The highest of these growth rates was experienced in Kildare, where standardised average rent grew by 15.1 per cent in the year to Q1 2020.

Rents in Dublin grew by 5.3 per cent year-on-year.

The annual growth rate was lowest in Kilkenny were the standardised average rent in Q1 2020 was equal to what it was in Q1 2019.

On a quarterly basis, standardised average rent in 14 counties was lower in Q1 2020 when compared to the previous quarter.

Rents in Kilkenny experienced the sharpest decline from their Q4 2019 level as they fell by 6.0 per cent.

On the other hand, rents in Longford and Kildare saw the largest increase on Q4 2019 with both having a growth rate of 6.5 per cent.

In addition, between March and April there was a significant decline in number of tenancies registered with the RTB. While in March there were over 7,000 registrations, in April this had fallen to less than 4,000. The number also remained subdued in May.