rents are definitely falling

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday February 10, 2003 20:46 by Dave Murphy - Tenants of Ireland, davemurphy164 at hotmail dot com

First hand experience of rents decreasing in Dublin

rents are definitely falling

Over the last few weeks we have first hand experience of the rental property market crash in Dublin and unarguable evidence that rents have come down by as much as 33% on last year’s levels.

Estate agents have admitted that rents have decreased on apartments in the city centre by 25% on last year. 2 bed appartments which were 1600 Euro last year are down now to 1200 Euro.

Even after that 25% decrease landlords and estate agents are still desperate to rent property. They can not find tenants to take property at the prices they are asking and are now dropping rents futher in order to get a tenant in. For example they are now saying they will accept 1100 Euro when you arrive to look at a 1200 euro appartment.

Observing the online site www.daft.ie one can see the same property ad over several days or in some cases weeks dropping in price. There are a considerable number of ads which have been there for weeks and the move in date is back in January or December.

When you arrive to view a place at 6pm there is no longer a line of 10 people waiting who are desperate to find a place to live. Instead there is a sad/frustrated property speculator or estate agent hoping for a gullible victim to sign up to pay a monthly rent that is way over the mortgage price they are paying.

The market is turning completely from being a landlords market to being one where tenants can pick and choose and offer they price they think is right. Landlords no longer have an option.

No doubt we will start to see this reflected in the housing sales market as we go deeper into recession and home owners start to face negative equity.

Advice as always is to shop around and haggle, there is plenty of choice!
Tell you friends and most of all tell your landlord and any estate agents you meet.

davemurphy164@hotmail.com