Dublin rental market - personal experiences

[seabhcan]

I had an interesting conversation with my former landlord today. Recently moved out of a nice one room flat in Drumcondra. When i took it a year ago there was a queue of hopeful renters snaking out the door for the first showing. I got the flat because i was literally the first in the queue (and I had missed out on several previous flats because I had turned up 2nd or 3rd). Rented the place without complaints for a year but then wanted something a bit bigger.

My former landlord put the flat on Daft two weeks ago... and has since gotten only two phone calls, and only one person showed up to take a look.

Nothing about the flat has changed not even the price - its still a relatively cheap, clean and bright pad 10min from the city center. The landlord says he's rented it out for 10 years and has always had queues of people wanting to take it. Hes worried something profound has changed in the dublin rental market in the last 12 months.

Anyone else got stories like this?

[Centurian]

He's worried something profound has changed in the Dublin rental market in the last 12 months.

There's no flies on your landlord, is there ? !

[seabhcan]

He's worried something profound has changed in the Dublin rental market in the last 12 months.

There's no flies on your landlord, is there ? !

I'm surprised by it. I thought there are supposed to be more people renting as they're holding off buying. It seems there are just fewer people altogether.

[dealmachtigeier]

In walking distance of Kennedy's and Fagans too presumably ... that's got to be worth something in itself!

[storybud]

Come on lads, the Students are doing exams or leaving for work in the states etc, worse time of the year for landlords letting out in Dublin. Who wants a one bed only a couple or a single person, the Health Boards are shelling out millions for housing lists on the corpo.immigrants/ single mums with their boyfriends, why would they take a one bed when they can have a 3 bed on our taxes.

I am not getting at single mothers by the way - man that is a tough job.

[Sidewinder]

I'm surprised by it. I thought there are supposed to be more people renting as they're holding off buying. It seems there are just fewer people altogether.

Eh no there's just a massive humongous insane oversupply of properties available, and what's more a massive humongous insane oversupply that gets bigger and bigger every week. Daftwatch, again

[Centurian]

I'm surprised by it. I thought there are supposed to be more people renting as they're holding off buying. It seems there are just fewer people altogether.

There are more people renting, but there's an even bigger supply of rental properties because people can't sell their properties so they're trying to rent them instead..

[jetttxyz]

This has been going on for sometime now....seabhcan's experience.
It's definitely a buyers' and renters' market.
Pal of mine got rent reduced after 6 months. Landlord didn't want her to go because of difficulty to rent.

[Anorakphobia]

And remember this is Drumcondra.
Wonder what the queues for the two bedroom shoe boxes in Cootehill and Virginia are like?

[patslatt]

I had an interesting conversation with my former landlord today. Recently moved out of a nice one room flat in Drumcondra. When i took it a year ago there was a queue of hopeful renters snaking out the door for the first showing. I got the flat because i was literally the first in the queue (and I had missed out on several previous flats because I had turned up 2nd or 3rd). Rented the place without complaints for a year but then wanted something a bit bigger.

My former landlord put the flat on Daft two weeks ago... and has since gotten only two phone calls, and only one person showed up to take a look.

Nothing about the flat has changed not even the price - its still a relatively cheap, clean and bright pad 10min from the city center. The landlord says he's rented it out for 10 years and has always had queues of people wanting to take it. Hes worried something profound has changed in the dublin rental market in the last 12 months.

Anyone else got stories like this?

Late last year, I met a highly versatile non-EU construction labourer in Dublin who can do carpentry,plastering and some plumbing among other things. Despite his skills,his pay was cut from €10 an hour to €7 . His employer,a small contractor, claimed that rapidly falling prices for subcontracts forced pay cuts. I thought the labourer's pay cut was an ominous market signal of a hard landing in residential construction-akin to the death of a canary in the coal mine.

With the decline in construction,thousands of young,highly mobile construction workers are emigrating to London to work on the Olympics site or returning to Eastern Europe where their savings allow them to buy houses cheaply. The swing from immigration to emigration in the huge construction work force is bound to slow or reduce demand for rentals,as will reduced immigration in a weak economy. On the supply side, as inventories of unsold housing pile up,developers are under pressure to lease unsold units or sell them in order to stay financially solvent. This is bound to increase vacancy rates.

In the event of an economic recession,Dublin's high rentals could decline sharply as people living alone unable to afford the rents move into shared accomodation and as young people returnhome temporarily.