Tiny number of Laois homes for rent with social housing support recipients locked out

There was an average of six properties available to rent in Portlaoise in September, with none available to tenants under the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) standard or discretionary limits.

According to Daft.ie, average rents in Co. Laois rose 14% in the last year and now sit at €1,372.

While the figure of 6 properties is very low, it is an increase on the just one single property available to rent in the Portlaoise area in June. 

Nationally, there were only 27 properties available to rent under the HAP scheme in September, the lowest figure ever recorded.

The September 2023 Locked Out of the Market report from Simon Communities Ireland shows a further decrease in the number of properties available to rent in the private rental market and available through HAP since June 2023.

The report comes in the context of a private rental market affected by a contraction in supply, increase in rental prices, and an overall lack of affordability.

75% (673) of properties available to rent at any price were located within the three Dublin areas studied.

Sligo had the lowest number of homes available to rent with just three properties available over the three days.

Nine of the 16 study areas experienced a decrease in the availability of properties to rent.

These were Athlone, Cork city centre, Dublin city north, Dublin city centre, Dundalk, Galway city suburbs, Galway city centre, Limerick city centre and Limerick city suburbs.

The latest Daft.ie Rental Price Report found that rent prices experienced a 10.7% year-on-year increase in Q2 2023.

Simon notes that this is the seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit increases, but is a slowdown relative to the peak inflation rate of 14.1% seen in 2022 Q3.

The average national monthly rent now sits at €1,792. Significant increases over the year were reported in both rural and urban areas, with County Mayo experiencing the highest year-on-year increase in rental prices at 24.3%,
followed closely by Roscommon with a 22.8% increase.

Compared to the start of 2023, rents in Dublin have risen by 0.9% compared to an average of 2.6% for the other cities and 6.5% outside cities.

Increases in rents have been twinned with an ongoing contraction of supply. The Daft.ie Rental price Report found nearly 1,200 available to rent on August 1st 2023. This figure is up almost two thirds on the same date a year earlier, but it is only half the number available on the same date in 2021.

The number of people in homelessness continues to increase, with a new record-high reached every month until July, before dropping by 156 persons in August 2023. The latest figures from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage reported that 12,691 people were living in emergency homeless accommodation in the last week of August.

This represents a 17% increase (1,886 people) since the same time last year.