The number of rental properties available to people on support payments has plummeted in the third quarter of the year.
According to the latest report from the Simon Communities of Ireland, there was just one property available to rent for a single person within housing assistance payment (HAP) limits.
The report found that an “unprecedented” contraction in supply since the lifting of some Covid restrictions has led to a 79 per cent reduction since June in the number of available properties for renters receiving housing supports.
The Locked Out report for October uses data from property website Daft.ie to examine access to housing in the private rental market for people on the HAP. It also looks at the availability of homes to rent over a three-day period.
The report considers the availability of properties within both the standard and discretionary HAP limits in 16 areas around the country for four household categories: single person; couple; couple/one parent and one child; and couple/one parent and two children.
The report notes there was an initial increase in supply of rental properties during the early onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, with an 80 per cent rise in the number of available properties between the March and July Locked Out reports in 2020.
“It is assumed that this is due to a combination of an influx of holiday rentals entering the mainstream market, stagnation in housing demand with the stay-at-home order and a lack of economic certainty,” the report says.
“Following the lifting of restrictions from April 2021, there has been an unprecedented contraction in supply.
“This is evidenced in the two most recent Locked Out reports, with a reduction in the amount of properties to rent by 20 per cent in the June study and a further 54 per cent decrease noted in this study.”
No availability
In nine of the 16 areas surveyed, there were no properties available to rent for any category within standard or discretionary rent supplement or HAP limits.
Those areas were Athlone, Cork city centre, Galway city suburbs, Leitrim, Limerick city centre, Limerick city suburbs, Sligo town, Portlaoise and Waterford city centre.
Wayne Stanley, head of policy and communications at the Simon Communities of Ireland, said that the “escalating lack of affordability is placing more and more pressure on the most vulnerable in the rental market”.
“The sharp contraction of supply, documented in this report, is likely to contribute to the rising monthly numbers of people forced to enter homelessness,” he added.
