Climate Change – are we all playing our part?

SUNDAY BEST Dangan Terrace, Thomastown. Co. Kilkenny

(Circa 1965 - 58 Years Ago)

Rents in Kilkenny and Carlow are up €1,318 (13.8%), while the country’s private rental market remains chronically starved of homes, leading to rents in the nal quarter of last year climbing an average of 13.7% higher than the same period a year earlier, according to a new Daft.ie.

While there are regional di erences, all parts of the country are experiencing substantial year-on-year increases in open market rents.

In the year to December 2022, the rate of in ation in Dublin was 12.6%, Cork city was 14.9%, Limerick city was 18.9% and Waterford city a whopping 20.2%. Outside the cities, the average annual increase in market rents was 13.6%.

Nationwide, there were just 1,096 homes available to rent on February 1, down over 20% on the same date a year ago and roughly one quarter the average level of availability during 2015-2019.

e average market rent nationwide between October and December was €1,733 a month, up 2.7% compared to the third quarter of the year and 126% above the low of €765 seen in late 2011.

“Many, particularly those who have the misfortune of trying to nd something in the open market currently, are only too aware of the challenges... To these people, it must seem almost obvious that it doesn’t need saying that, when faced with an acute shortage of rental homes, the solution is to build more rental homes,” said Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin and author of the report.

“However, many others are shielded from how brutal it is out there. Some only become aware when a family member or new colleague has to run the gauntlet of nding a home to rent on the open market. But many