CITY TRIBUNE
Rents rocket across Galway city
The housing crisis across Galway show no signs of abating – with the latest figures recording an almost nine per cent rent hike in the city, and tenants paying nearly one fifth more in the county compared to a year ago.
Record annual inflation combined with a surge in rents in the first half of 2021 means that rents in Connacht-Ulster – up by over 20% compared to the year before – have recorded the strongest rate of inflation on record in any region since 2006.
The latest quarterly report from Daft.ie found that renters are now forking out an average of €1,504 for a home In Galway City – a jump of 8.8% in the last year and the third highest in the country after Dublin and Cork.
In the rest of Galway, rents were on average 19% higher in the final quarter of 2021, with the average listed rent now €1,138 – up an astonishing 123% from its lowest point.
In the city, a one-bed apartment commands €1,026 (up 12%), a two-bed home is an average €1,207 (up 11.5%), a three-bed home costs €1,407 (up 11.6%) and a four-bed house rents at just under €1,700 (up 8.4%).
Across the county, the rents averaged €778 for a one-bed and €908, €1,021 and €1,151 for two, three and four-bed properties respectively.
Rents for bedrooms which are traditionally favoured by students also jumped. A single bedroom in the city centre costs €475 a month while a double bedroom costs €558. Moving out to the suburbs is only marginally cheaper at €460 and €534 respectively – the suburbs showing the biggest hikes of around 5% and 10% compared to 2021.
The report highlights the lack of supply which is continuing to drive the rent inflation. In the entire Connacht region just 108 homes were advertised for lease on February 1, down 22% compared to a year ago.
It was the second lowest number ever advertised since 2006 according to Daft.ie. The pre-Covid average during 2019 was 600.
Wishful homeowners can only look on aghast as figures show how much more economical it would be to buy.
The report states that in Galway City a one-bed apartment would cost €512 in an average monthly mortgage instead of €1,026 in rent.
A two-bed house would be €625 in mortgage repayments as opposed to €1,207 rental while a three-bed would involve repayments of €944, which jumps to €1,407 in rent.
In the county the situation was just as stark. A two-bed and three-bed property would cost €387 and €552 in monthly repayments instead of €908 and €1,021.
Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin and author of the Daft Report, said the strong rebound in economic activity, as public health restrictions relax, has translated into a strong demand for rental accommodation.
“Coming at a time of very weak rental supply, this has pushed rents up further, with inflation at its highest rate nationwide since early 2018. The number of live rental ads is at its lowest ever on record, with fewer than 1,400 live ads on February 1,” he stated.
“As ever, the solution remains in the construction of large numbers of market- and cost-rental housing, to cater for tenants of all incomes. Reform of rent controls would also enable new rental homes to be built faster.”
Threshold, the national housing charity, pointed out that Galway City is designated Pressure Zone (RPZ), which means that rents cannot be increased by more than general inflation as recorded by the Consumer Price Index – or by 2% per annum – where this is higher.
Threshold chief executive John-Mark McCafferty said one-in-five private tenants in Ireland were spending more than 40% of their disposable income on rent.
Close to one-in-ten private renters pay more than 60% of their earnings on rent. They were also at greater risk of poverty, more likely to be burdened by debt and have gone without heat at least once in the last year.
“Threshold advisors have found approximately half of the rent review notices brought to them in 2021 were invalid. Unfortunately, in some cases the tenant accepts the invalid notice for fear of being unable to find a new rental home. Threshold urges all private renters to get in touch when they receive a rent review to check the validity of the rent increase,” he stated.
Raising the matter in the Dáil, Sinn Féin TD for Galway West Mairéad Farrell called on the Taoiseach to act urgently on the rental crisis in Galway.
She urged the Government to immediately introduce a three-year ban on rent increases across the country and give renters a tax credit equivalent to a month’s rent.
“The Government’s 2% rent cap is clearly not working. We need a ban on rent increases on all existing and new tenancies, and we need government to put money back in renters’ pockets through a refundable tax credit worth a month’s rent,” she insisted.
“The ban on local councils buying homes with HAP [Housing Assistant Payment] or RAS [Rent Accommodation Scheme] tenants in-situ where the landlord is selling up is also forcing families into homelessness while the properties are being sold to investment funds, who lease these same properties back to local authorities. This makes no social or economic sense.”
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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