The average cost of renting a home in Donegal has decreased by 0.7% in the last three months to €1,185.
The latest Daft report shows rents remain 10% higher this year than last year in Donegal, while the shortage of available homes continues.
There were just 240 homes listed for rent in Connacht-Ulster on August 1st, down 6% on the same date a year ago and less than one third of the 2015-2019 average of almost 750 homes.
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Donegal has increased by 2.0% to €735. Renting a two-bedroom house is now €874, which is a decrease of 1.0%. The average rent for a three-bedroom house has increased by 2.0% to €1,021.
Larger homes have seen the biggest declines, with four-bedroom houses dropping by 3.8% to €1,107 and five-bedroom houses dropping by 4.4% to €1,189.
Sinn Féin spokesperson on Finance, Pearse Doherty TD, has said that average new rents increasing by €6036 over the past four years, the lifetime of this government, is a damning indictment of the failure to address the housing crisis.
He said the colossal increases shown in the Daft rental report shows were a “direct result of the government’s refusal to adopt Sinn Féin proposals over those past four years, and that households are now paying the price of that failure”.
Teachta Doherty said: “People are growing weary of these reports. Parents don’t need another report to tell them that their adult children living in their box rooms cannot afford a home.
“It is no way for our young people to live. No way to build your own life. No way to build a relationship. No way to build a family.
“What they need is a government that has the plan and the will to bring about the radical strategic reset in housing policy that the Housing Commission says is required.
“Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have shown that they are incapable and unwilling of fixing the housing crisis that they themselves created.”
Deputy Doherty added that the only way to start fixing the housing crisis is with a change of government, Eoin Ó Broin Minister for Housing and the implementation of Sinn Féin’s alternative housing plan.
