Average rent for apartment in Louth almost double mortgage payment

The average rent for a one bed apartment in Louth is now almost double the mortgage repayment for the same property, according to the latest Daft.ie Rental Price Report released today.

Market rents in the county were on average 9.4% higher in the first quarter of 2023 than a year previously. It is also up 0.2% on the previous quarter.The average listed rent is now €1554, up 143% from its lowest point.

Scarcity of properties to rent still a major issue in Louth. As of the morning of 15 May, just 18 properties were available to rent on the Daft.ie website in Louth, a county with a population of 139,100 according to latest census results.

Looking at rents in Louth in more detail, the average rent for a one bed apartment in the county, now stands at €1,031, up 4.8% on the same time last year.

It is almost double the cost of a mortgage repayment of €558, on a one bed apartment using the parameters of a 3.5% interest rate; for a term of 25 years; and with a 90% LTV.

The average rent for a two bed house in Louth now stands at €1,253 a month, up 6.6% on the same period in 2022.
A mortgage repayment on a two bed house in Louth, using the same parameters as mentioned earlier, would be €672 per month.

The average market rents for three bed houses in Louth rose in the past twelve months by 5.9% and now stand at €1,440 per month. The monthly mortgage repayment amount on the same house in Louth, would be €963 - €477 lower than the average rent.

Moving onto four bed houses, the average market rent for a four bed in Louth rose by 5.5% annually and now stands at €1,647 per month. A mortgage on the same property in Louth, would cost €1,832 per month.

The only size of house in Louth that has seen an annual fall in average market rents, were five bed houses. The average rent for a five bed house in Louth stood at €1,881 in the first quarter of 2023, down 1.2% on the same time last year. In terms of mortgage repayments on a house of this size in Louth, using a 3.5% interest rate and a 25 year term, with a 90% LTV, the average monthly mortgage repayment would be €1,778.

Nationally, market rents in the first quarter of 2023 were an average of 1% higher than in the final three months of 2022, the smallest quarterly increase since 2020.

Compared to a year ago, however, market rents are 11.7% higher, reflecting large increases seen during 2022.
The average market rent nationwide between January and March was €1,750 per month, compared to €1,387 in the first quarter of 2020 and a low of just €765 per month seen in late 2011.

As in recent quarters, the upward trend market rents around the country is driven by extraordinary shortages in the availability of rental accommodation.

Nationwide, there were just 959 homes available to rent on May 1st. While this is up 13% on the same date last year, it still represents one of the three lowest totals for availability at the start of the month in a series that extends back to the start of 2006.

The availability of rental homes is approximately one quarter the average level of availability during 2015-2019.
The figures above refer to open market rents but the report also includes an index of rents paid by sitting tenants, rather than movers, using a bespoke survey of tenants.

It shows that, on average, rents paid by sitting tenants have increased by 4.1% over the last twelve months, with bigger percentage increases outside Dublin than in the capital.

Since the introduction of Rent Pressure Zones in 2016, rents of sitting tenants have increased by roughly 20% on average, compared to an average increase in open-market rents of three quarters over the same period.