The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
RENTS in Clare went up by 7.1% in the past year. Properties in the county are now advertised for rent at an average of €591 per month, up 12% from their lowest point in 2013, according to the Daft.ie Rental Report.
Rents rose nationwide by an average of 3.2% in the third quarter of 2015, the largest three-month increase since early 2007, the report states. The increase in rents comes ahead of Government measures to limit increases in rents. The national average rent between July and September was €964, compared to €882 a year previously.
Annual inflation in rents now stands at 9.3% nationwide and, for the second quarter in-a-row, is being driven by trends outside the capital.
In Dublin, annual inflation in rents is 8.9%, down from 15% in mid-2014, whereas outside Dublin inflation in rents stands at 9.7%, up from 5% in mid-2014.
The highest rates of inflation are in the cities outside Dublin, with rents 13.5% higher than a year ago in Cork city and 12.2% higher in Galway city. In Limerick and Waterford cities, inflation stands at 11.4% and 9.6% respectively.
In Munster, rents rose by an average of 6.8% in the year to September 2015, compared to a rise of 4.2% a year previously.
The average cost to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Clare is now €395 up 3.2% on the same time last year. Two-bedroom houses are advertised at €452 on average up 4.3%, while three-bedroom houses are averaging at €562, an increase of 2.7%. Four-bedroom properties in the county are advertised at on average €605 and five-bedroom houses at €645, up 2.6% and 1% each.
While the average cost of renting increased, rental yields, or the ratio of the annual rents to the price of the property, decreased. Yields fell by 0.1% and 1% on average, depending on the size of the property.
The rental yields varied from 8.9% on a one-bedroom apartment and 8.4% on a two-bedroom property to 3.6% and 3.4% on four-bedroom and five-bedroom houses respectively.
