DUBLIN, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Demand for rental accommodation in Dublin is growing from already sky high levels 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 Aug. 1, property website Daft.ie said on Wednesday.
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.”
Revenues at IRES grew by 6.7% year-on-year to 42.1 million euros in the first half of the year, the company said on Thursday. Its 4,000 almost exclusively Dublin-based units were fully occupied, with average rents up 2.9% on the year.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Kim Coghill)
