- Over 150 potential tenants queued to view a rental property in Dublin last night
- Demand for rental accommodation in Dublin has grown to sky high levels
- While Ireland built too many homes in the wrong places in the 2000s, supply has since constantly fallen short of demand and rents have become more expensive
PUBLISHED: 05:31 EDT, 17 August 2022 | UPDATED: 09:10 EDT, 17 August 2022
Over 150 potential tenants queued to view a single rental property in Dublin last night as Ireland grapples with a housing crisis.
A long queue formed along a street in Dublin on Tuesday night, with over 100 people queuing for a house viewing at around 8.30pm.
Within 30 minutes, even as the sun set, a further 50 people joined the queue to view the property in the city.
Conor Finn, who posted footage of the long queues, tweeted that he had waited for an hour in the queue before leaving.
'An hour later and I've left the queue after no real movement or chance of viewing the house tonight,' Finn said on Tuesday night at 9.30pm. 'People were still joining the end of the queue as I left.'
Ireland's economy is booming as the republic offers low corporation tax rates to tech and pharmaceutical companies such as Google - and pandemic-enhanced revenues from those companies has meant the republic is enjoying a €8bn corporate tax windfall.
But employees from these companies have flooded into the country, meaning the demand for properties in Ireland have soared. They are also able to afford to pay higher prices for houses and renting a property, meaning costs have soared.
This, coupled with a shortage of properties, has meant Ireland is facing a housing crisis and one estate agents in Dublin have even had to introduce a lottery system for viewings after they received 1,200 applications for one home.
Over 150 potential tenants queued to view a single rental property in Dublin last night as Ireland grapples with a housing crisis
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A long queue formed along a street in Dublin on Tuesday night, with over 100 people queuing for a house viewing at around 8.30pm
Demand for rental accommodation in Dublin has grown from already sky high levels in recent months - to such a degree that Ireland's largest private landlord could have recently filled a new apartment block 30 times over, its chief executive said on Thursday.
Chronic supply shortages pushed Irish rental properties to a new record low this month, with just 716 homes available to a population of 5.1 million people as of August 1, property website Daft.ie said in a report on Wednesday last week.
Irish Residential Properties REIT (IRES) Chief Executive Margaret Sweeney told Reuters that it received 600 requests to view 20 new apartments it listed last month near Dublin's city centre.
The 61-unit development was fully occupied within a week of the builders completing the project, she added.
'We're definitely seeing much greater demand, there is a real shortage of good available accommodation. We've seen it increasing month-on-month,' Sweeney said in a telephone interview.
'It's coming through in the fundamentals, unemployment is even lower than it was pre-COVID, there's been quite strong FDI (foreign direct investment). We've a very young population as well as less emigration than previous decades.'
Estate agents Brock Delappe in Dublin said they have been forced to operate a 'lottery system' when choosing who can view properties because they have been inundated with applications.
Within 30 minutes, even as the sun set, a further 50 people joined the queue to view the property in the city
Ireland is facing a housing crisis due to a shortage in houses coupled with soaring demand
David Brock, an estate agent at the firm, said that there have been 1,200 applications for a single property.
'The knock-on of that is, while the rent is low, you can only rent it out to one person and then you have got 1,999 disappointed people,' Brock told Newstalk.
'When we're doing the lettings and it comes to that, we need to operate a lottery system, which is unfair as well. You meet a lot of people who are desperate.'
While Ireland built too many homes in the wrong places in the 2000s, supply has since constantly fallen short of demand and rents have long passed their previous peak, limiting prospective buyers' ability to save a deposit.
A years-long mismatch between low supply and high demand in Ireland has been compounded by two shutdowns of the construction sector in the past 18 months to slow the spread of Covid-19.
The resultant stalling in the building of new homes and a high number of well-paid employees at tech companies moving to Ireland has contributed to house prices rising again and rents increasing.
In 2009, there were over 23,400 homes available to rent in Ireland - nearly 8,000 in Dublin and 15,500 elsewhere. In contrast there were less than 300 homes to rent in Dublin and 424 elsewhere on August 1 this year.
Ronan Lyons, who wrote the Daft.ie report, said: 'A resurgent economy over the last year has accentuated the chronic shortage of rental housing in Ireland.
'The shortage of rental accommodation translates directly into higher market rents and this can only be addressed by significantly increased supply.'
Last month, Irish officials claimed Britain's Rwanda policy has triggered a surge in refugees arriving in Ireland, reports The Telegraph.
But that is just one factor - the Irish government said that the country has seen an increase of refugees due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
The unprecedented number of refugees arriving in Ireland has put pressure on the country's housing crisis, despite generous offers to host Ukrainian families.
The shortage of accommodation has become so critical that around 4,300 Ukrainian refugees are set to be displaced this month, reports the Irish Independent. They are being housed in hotels and hospital accommodation.
Read more:
- Refugees pour into Ireland as Dublin blames Britain’s Rwanda policy
- 4,300 Ukrainian refugees in need of new rooms as rental deals run out - Independent.ie
- Rent crisis: Over 1,200 people apply for one home in Dublin | Newstalk
