WITH so few homes available to rent in Donegal it is no surprise that rents here over the past twelve months have risen by just over 10 per cent.
The average three bed rental now is standing at €1,185 according to the latest Daft.ie rental report which stated there are just 240 homes available to rent in the Ulster/Connaught region.
This is less than one third of what was available in the region to rent between 2015 -19 when the amount was 750 homes.
Local Letting Manager with Franklin Estate Agents, Sharon McCready said they get inquiries for rental properties from people as far away as Kerry.
This she attributes to the fact that rents here are cheaper.
“We also get inquiries from people coming here to work in local companies. Those coming to work have references from employers and we are able to help them out. We were able to provide apartment accommodation for a number of people in recent weeks coming to Letterkenny to work. Some weeks we have apartments available, other weeks houses, it is swings and round abouts, but there is still a scarcity.
“Daft’s average apartment rental given at €735 a month but be the lower end price for older apartments. The average 3 bed monthly rental here is around €1,200,” she said.
Economist Ronan Lyons writing in the Daft.ie Quarter two report states that “ideally, more than a decade into a rental housing shortage, we would be talking about the gradual spread of the solution, rather than a return to the core problem. The solution is new supply of market rental homes, in large volumes, in each and every rental market in the country.”
While Donegal rents have risen substantially they are still below rent levels for similar properties in other counties.
Sligo has seen an 11.3 per cent increase in the same period with the average rent there standing at €1,330.
Roscommon is even higher at €1,349.
The closer to the capital the higher the rents with Kildare at €1,983, Wicklow at €2,042 and South Dublin at €2,656.
Dublin has seen the lowest increase in rents for the same period standing at just 2.1 per cent.
The increase in rents in Donegal since pre Covid-19 is a massive 83 per cent.
At August 1 the average monthly rent nationwide was €1.922. Daft.ie reports that there were just 2,200 properties available nationwide to rent.
They report this is one of the lowest number since 2006.
The Q2 report states that monthly rent for a one bed apartment here is now €735, up two per cent.
A two bed costs €874 monthly to rent down by one per cent.
A three bed rent per month is €1,021 up two per cent while a four bed costs €1,107, down 3.8 per cent.
A five bed home monthly rent is €1,189 down 4.4 per cent.
The cost of renting a single room in a house in Ulster according to Daft.ie is now €482 per month which is up 9.2 per cent.
The cost of renting a double room is €480 a month, down 6.9 per cent.
While the increase here has slowed, Donegal is still cheaper to rent in than other border counties Cavan and Monaghan.
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