Homes available for sale in August dropped to its lowest level in 14 years, while availability of rental homes has doubled

The Covid-19 pandemic that hit all industries and businesses sharply in Ireland, has not left the home sales alone as well.

According to property website Daft.ie, the number of homes available for sale at the beginning of August dropped to its lowest level in 14 years. This is the first time since 2006, that such a drop has been reported.

On August 1st, there were only 19,538 properties for sale nationally, down 22%-on-year, according to the website.

This was an advantage for the rental landlords, as the availability in the rental market has increased. Nationwide the rent for properties has increased to a percentage of 41 and 92% more in Dublin. 

Availability in Dublin has doubled when comparing to last year. During this time in 2019, the availability of rental homes were fewer than 1600, but now it is nearly 3000, the website pointed out.

According to Draft.ie’s latest monthly report, the State’s housing market headline property prices in July were unchanged from a year ago, while rents were up by 1.2 per cent.

The figures show that in July the average listed sales price was €259,733 nationally while the average monthly listed rent was €1,412.

In the capital city the average listed sale price was €379,000, while the average monthly listed rent was €2,030.

“The greater puzzle is the resilience of Dublin rents. Rents in the capital fell by 2.5 per cent in April, from their March level, but instead of falling further in the months since have actually come back slightly and are now just 2.1 per cent below their March level,” said Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity College Dublin and author of the Daft.ie report.

“Dublin has seen a big increase in rental supply in recent months. Between the start of May and the end of July, the number of rental ads in Dublin this year was almost 50 per cent higher than the same period last year. In the rest of the country, it was 1.5 per cent lower, not higher.”

“The lack of rent reductions may be down to long-run pent-up demand coming on stream despite the pandemic.”

“A second explanation is regulatory: the nature of rent pressure zones punishes landlords who cut their rents,” he added.