Ireland's rents now higher than 2008 peak: report

Ireland's rents are now higher than their 2008 peak, according to a report from a local property website on Tuesday.

The report from daft.ie, Ireland's biggest property website, said the average rent nationwide has risen by 39.7 percent since bottoming out in late 2011 and has for the first time exceeded its 2008 peak by 0.8 percent.

From 1997 to 2007 Ireland experienced a serious property bubble. When the bubble burst in 2008, Ireland's property prices and rents fell significantly. Since early 2013, property prices and rents in the country have begun to recover due to strong economic growth.

In Dublin, rents are now an average of 5.2 percent above their previous peak, while in Cork and Galway cities, rents are 4 percent and 10 percent above levels recorded eight years ago. Outside the cities, the average rent remains 5.5 percent below peak levels.

The report also said rents rose by an average of 3.9 percent between April and June, matching the biggest three-month increase in the series, recorded early 2007.

There were just 3,600 homes to rent nationwide on Aug. 1, 1,000 fewer than on the same date a year previously.

Compared to their lowest point in late 2010, rents in Dublin have now risen by 51.3 percent.

There were just over 1,400 Dublin homes available to rent on Aug. 1, down nearly 350 on the same date a year earlier.

Economist with Daft.ie Ronan Lyons attributed the rent increase to lack of enough homes, saying that the solution is to "get new homes built as that will address the underlying problem which is a lack of homes."

He said the problem is not just an urban one and that there have been significant rent rises in some rural areas, particularly those close to cities and with good access. Endit