Rents fall to their lowest level in a decade

17th November, 2009 - Rents across the country have fallen a further 4% in the past three months, according to the latest report published by the property website, Daft.ie. The national average rent now stands at €771 - the lowest level in almost 10 years.

Dublin rents were again most affected, falling 5% in three months. Rents in Galway remained static, while rents in Cork and Limerick cities fell by 2.5%. Waterford fell more sharply, down almost 4%, while elsewhere around the country, rents fell by an average of 3.8%.

Commenting on the report, Ronan Lyons, Economist at Daft.ie said "While the number of properties available to rent is still at an all-time high, it would appear that these latest price falls are starting to have a positive effect on supply. In Dublin, where drops have been higher than average, the total number of properties available to rent fell by almost 8% in the past 3 months alone."

He continued, "These recent falls in rent have pushed the average rental income back to levels last seen in 2000, which has much wider implications - NAMA was predicated on rents and yields remaining high between now and 2020. However currently the yield on residential property has risen by just 0.1% in the last year, to 3.4% on average, compared to the NAMA benchmark of 6%"

The full report available at www.daft.ie/report contains a commentary by Dr. Charles Larkin, economist at Trinity College, Dublin and the Swan Group.

For further information please contact:

Naoise McNally (085 7492363, 01 421 8700), Daft.ie - media@daft.ie

Notes to the editor:
Daft.ie is Ireland's largest property website. The latest audited report from ABCe (May 2009) shows traffic of 103 million page impressions (pages of information received) and 1,275,630 unique users. Daft.ie is the number one property website in Ireland across all demographics, from first-time-buyers to commercial property investors.

About the Daft.ie Rental Report
The Daft Rental Report is based on an analysis of all rental properties advertised on Daft.ie since January 2002, including over 130,000 since January 2009. This figure represents the bulk of the available properties to let in the country and therefore gives the most accurate and timely reflection of what is happening in the Irish rental market. Figures are calculated from econometric regressions using standard methods.