An analysis conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has shown that 293,673 households received support via one of the Government’s three main rent support schemes in the year 2020.
This reveals a dramatic increase compared to figures available for 1994 which recorded that 134,973 households were in receipt of government assistance.
Renters who qualify for assistance can receive rent supplements from bodies such as Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), Rental Accommodation Scheme (Ras); and Rent Supplement (RS)
The report also states that, “ Questions about how well targeted these housing supports are: many low-income renters receive no support for their housing costs and face high rent-to-income ratios, while almost one-in-five (16.7%) of supported renters are in the top half of the income distribution.”
The figures show that 54% of renting households, or 16% of the total number of households nationwide are receiving rent allowances.
Co-author of the report Barra Roantree stated that: “The size of the supported rental sector has grown significantly in recent decades, with more of this support now provided indirectly through schemes like HAP. While both direct and indirect supports greatly improve affordability for households, our finding that almost one-in-five supported renters are in the top half of the income distribution raises questions about how well targeted these supports are.”
The ESRI stated that direct and indirect rent allowance do a “huge amount” to aid in the affordability of ever increasing rents. It states that “There is an economic rationale for the use of rent controls internationally in settings where the presence of market failures, information asymmetries or excess demand (coupled with inelastic supply) are prevalent;”
In a separate report from April this year the ERSI stated that’ “ The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the Irish economy with major impacts on the labour market: at the height of the pandemic in Q2 2020, nearly one-in-three workers were unemployed. However, rents have not fallen. The recovery in the economy is likely to put considerable pressure on the rental market and our scenarios indicate further upward price pressure would be expected if stabilisation measures were removed.”
The Irish Times reported that the Government spent close to €900 million on rent subsidies in the private sector in 2021. This figure is said to include payments amounting to €542 million on its “main rent subsidy scheme”.
The report from the ERSI also stated that, “there has been a shift away from the direct provision of support — through local authority and approved housing body owned accommodation — towards indirect subsidization of housing costs in the private rental sector,”.
A press release published on gov.ie boasts of the allocation “over 9,000 social homes delivered last year” saying that the figure is “ up 17% on previous year”.
It further states that “The 2021 SSHA (Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes) shows 59,247 households were assessed as being qualified for, and in need of, social housing support as of 17 November 2021.”
The government claims that “This figure is down 2,633 (4.3%) from 61,880 households on 2 November 2020” and represents a “decrease of 32,353 (35.3%) since 2016.”
“Overall in 2021, a total of 9,183 new social homes were delivered, an increase of 17% on 2020 figures. This total includes 5,202 (an increase of 2.6% on 2020) new build homes, 1,270 acquisitions and 2,711 homes delivered through leasing programmes.”
These numbers reveal that almost 60,00 households are still languishing on the housing list with a report from South County Dublin Council revealing an average 13.3 year wait time for a 4-bedroom house, while those hoping to avail of a one-bedroom home can expect to wait an average of 8 years.
In February this year property firm daft.ie released a fourth-quarter rent report revealing that there were only 1,397 homes available to rent on 1 February, the lowest number since Daft began keeping records on availability at the start of 2016. The finding also showed that the average rent nationally was €1,524 per month, which is an average of 10.3% higher than the same period in 2020.