Overall average rent prices up year-on-year across Limerick city and county

THE standardised average rent for new tenancies in County Limerick in the first quarter of this year was €884 — a year-on-year increase of €73.

Rents in Limerick city are actually down since the previous quarter, but up from the same time last year, according to the figures, released in the latest Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) Rent Index.

The standardised average rent for new tenancies in Limerick city in the first quarter of 2018, which is counted between January and March, was €844. The average figure for the end of 2017 stood at €865. The figures represent a drop in prices by 2.5 percent, or €21, since the last quarter.

But the early 2018 rent for Limerick city is up on its equivalent figure from the start of 2017, which was €768, showing an overall increase in the city since the same time last year.

Across the country, despite the continued increase in prices, rent inflation has slowed to 0.4 percent in the first quarter. The equivalent inflation figure for the previous quarter was 1.1 percent.

The yearly rate of rent increase nationally is now 7.1 percent, with Dublin the highest single region at 7.8 percent. 

Rosalind Carroll, Director of the Residential Tenancies Board said that “significant pressures remain on the private rental market” in the first three months of the year.

“However, while annual growth rates show an increase in Q1 2018, on a quarterly basis we have now seen three consecutive quarters of reduced growth rates both at a national level and in Dublin. We will need to monitor whether this quarterly trend continues during the rest of 2018.

“The figures also show the particular pressures that exist in Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area,” she added.

“Finally, it is worth noting that the Rent Index is based on new tenancies registered each Quarter and therefore does not reflect what is happening within existing tenancies (the ‘base’ effect).

“Some of the new tenancies will be properties new to the rental market (i.e. not let in the previous 24 months) or may have been subject to substantial change and therefore are exempt from the 4 percent rent restrictions of the Rent Pressure Zones.”