Figures published today by the PRTB show that residential rents in Dublin rose by 4.2% in the three month period between April and June. Commenting on this, Savills’ Director of Research Dr. John McCartney said;

“Last February when the Central Bank introduced new mortgage restrictions we said it would displace owner-occupier demand into the private rented sector. Today’s figures are evidence of this.”

However, according to McCartney, this is only the first stage of a process that will see a resumption of house price growth in the capital;

“House prices in Dublin have stalled for now. However rising rents are now pushing up residential yields. This will attract buy-to-let investors who currently cannot get decent returns on deposits and bonds due to low interest rates.  This investor activity will continue until house prices have been driven back up to a point where yields are no longer attractive.”

McCartney says that the net effect of this process will be a higher ratio of investors to owner-occupiers in the housing market.