An analysis of home rents in November suggest landlords did not race to increase rates ahead of the imposition of new regulations on rent certainty measures.
Ronan Lyons, assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Trinity College Dublin, said an analysis of 2,500 sample rental properties showed while rents in the capital did increase, on average, by 1.3%, it was not statistically significant.
Rents outside Dublin meanwhile, rose 0.1% based on the same property sample. There had been fears that some landlords would seek to push up rents as quickly as possible once the Government had signalled its intention to increase an element of rent certainty into the market.
A separate analysis of several hundred properties showed, in the 10-day period after word first emerged of concrete proposals, that there had been a 1.4% average increase in rent.
The broader analysis indicates it did not become a national trend.
Regarding possible rent increases, Prof Lyons said: “If they did that they did it over the summer when it was unclear what rent controls were going to come in.”
However, he said while there were about 6,500 properties available for rent in November 2014, the comparable figure last month was 5,500.
“There is a 10% to 15% reduction in what is coming on the market. The market is getting tighter,” he said
The legislation for the new rent certainty measures was due to complete its passage through the Oireachtas yesterday, meaning the new regulations could be in place before Christmas.
