Westmeath is the only county in the Midlands where house rents increased in the past quarter, according to a new survey from Ireland’s largest property website, Daft.ie
The Daft.ie Rental Report for 2011 revealed that Westmeath bucked the trend in the Midlands by recording a 0.4 per cent increase in average rental prices from the previous quarter.
However overall, at an average of €592 per month, rents in Westmeath have decreased by 1.2 per cent in the past year, and are now 22.6 per cent below their peak.
Across the Midlands, in the counties of Westmeath, Longford, Offaly, and Laois, rents fell by 0.5 per cent in the final three months of last year.
The latest Daft report showed that the national average rent of €821 per month was 0.7 per cent lower in the final quarter of 2011 than it was a year previously, a figure predominantly driven by falls outside the cities.
Commenting on the latest report, Joan Burton, Minister for Social Protection, said: “Nationally rents have remained notably stable for the last 12 months. Indeed, rents have stabilised as far back as December 2009, with little change since that date. This quarter under review mirrors this trend. As previous quarterly reports have shown, national rent indices still appear to mask a rural/ urban split within the Irish rental market, with rural prices continuing to fall, albeit at a slow pace, and these falls being offset by increasing rents in urban areas.”
She added, “The issue of rents stabilising since December 2009, given the deterioration in both net disposable incomes and employment opportunities, does pose the question as to whether an element of this relates to the pricing floors available to landlords in the form of rent supplement limits.
“It is essential that rents are allowed to stabilise from a natural balance of supply and demand, rather than as a result of a price floor funded by the taxpayer.”
The full report is available from www.daft.ie/report
