New renters are paying 18 per cent more each month than existing tenants, according to the latest figures.
The data from the ESRI and the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) could also be interpreted to mean that some landlords are flouting rent pressure zone (RPZ) requirements after the cost of existing tenancies rose 5.3 per cent in the last year, well above the 2 per cent limit.
Rents increased by their highest annual rate between April 1st and June 30th this year, the latest Rent Index report showed.
The standardised average rent in new tenancies grew by 11.6 per cent year-on-year.
The average rent for a new tenant in Ireland is now €1,574, with an existing renter paying €1,332 on average.
In Dublin, new tenants are paying €2,102 a month on average, while existing tenants are paying €1,767.
In Cork, new tenants are paying €1,363 a month on average while existing tenancies are paying €1,149 a month, the report said.
Across the country, more than one in four new tenancies (27 per cent) are costing renters over €2,000 a month. This rises to half of new tenancies costing over €2,000 in Dublin. For existing tenancies, 14 per cent of renters are paying over €2,000, with 28 per cent of renters in Dublin paying above this figure.
“What the report shows is renters continue to get fleeced,” Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said.
“In the middle of the deepest cost-of-living crisis in modern history, it’s really bad news for renters.”
Rent pressure zones
With the cost of existing tenancies rising 5.3 per cent in the last year, the data could be interpreted to mean that some landlords are flouting the rent pressure zone (RPZ) requirements. These RPZ rules mean that in areas of high rent, landlords can only raise the rent by 2 per cent a year.
However, the ESRI, which prepared the rent index, said it may not necessarily mean RPZ legislation was being flouted.
Associate research professor Conor O’Toole said the index was comparing one set of properties at one period of time to another set of properties at another time, and that plush new build-to-rents included in one index, where rents would be higher, may contribute to the 5.3 per cent increase in existing tenancies.
The RTB indicated it would use this data to help step up its enforcement measures. Lucia Crimin, deputy director of the RTB, said it was quite difficult to tackle the issue of non-compliance without quality data.
“We have that data now, and we’re hopeful for what we can do with that,” she said. “It’s important from a societal perspective to address these potential non-compliances and they need to be dealt with.”
