Clare residential rents down

The average rent for all dwellings let in County Clare in the first quarter of this year, and which were registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB), was €513. That was actually a slight decrease (of 0.4) compared to the prevailing average rent in the first quarter of last year, when the amount was €517.

These findings, announced on Wednesday,  are drawn from the PRTB’s Average Rent Dataset, which is part of a comprehensive Rent Index  compiled for the board by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). The average rent cited is based on rents registered with the PRTB for all dwelling types (houses and apartments; one, two or more rooms).

However, if people are interested in seeing the rent that applies to different dwelling types (number of bedrooms) and for different locations, they can check this out at www.prtb.ie (click “rent index”) and go to the Average Rents in my Area (Dataset).

Looking at the country as a whole, the Rent Index shows that rents in Q1 2014 were 3.5% higher than in Q1 of 2013; rents for houses were 1.6% higher, while apartment rents were 5.6% higher than in the same quarter of 2013.

In the first quarter of 2014, monthly rents for the country as a whole were close to 23% lower than their peak in late 2007. Rents for houses are 24% lower than they were in the fourth quarter of 2007. Monthly rents for apartments are nearly 21% lower than they were in the first quarter of 2008.

The PRTB/ESRI Rent Index is the most accurate and authoritative rent report of its kind on the private accommodation sector in Ireland because it reflects the actual rents being paid, according to the PRTB’s records, as distinct from the asking or advertised rent, which is the basis of other rent reports.

Commenting on the Rent Index findings, the Director of the PRTB, Ms. Anne Marie Caulfield, said: “The private rented sector in this country continues to reflect a story of two very different markets. Dublin continues to show a strong year on year growth in rent levels, while in the rest of the country shows only a marginal increase over the year to the end of March this year”.

All landlords are legally obliged to register tenancies with the Board and the number of new registrations with the PRTB in Quarter 1, 2014 was just under 33,000.