“Any sign of relief for tenants is to be welcomed”, according to Aideen Hayden, chairperson of Threshold. “However the central point is that rents are extraordinarily high and unaffordable for many. A 0.1% decrease in the final three months of 2019 has no real significance to those searching for a property, or struggling to pay their monthly rent. This is a reduction in one quarter: Year-on-year, the truth is that rents are still rising.
“In addition, while this report suggests rents outside cities are falling, they continue to rise in Galway, Cork and Dublin. We cannot wait and hope for the market to produce a fall in rents to reasonable levels. Thousands of families cannot wait. The number of house completions is rising it is nowhere near where it needs to be.”
She said that the next Government will be reviewing housing policy as it takes office, and it has a key role to play. “We badly need accommodation for people such as students on low incomes, workers on minimum or average wages, for single adults and young people seeking to start families. “The State must intervene much more strongly, both in measures for building social housing and actions to enable higher levels of delivery of housing across social, owner occupation and more affordable rental.”
