Belfast rents were pushed up an average 3.7 percent in the second quarter of 2010 says a new report.
A combination of fears over jobs, worries of continued declines in house prices across Northern Ireland and a lack of bank lending are responsible for the rise, according to the latest Belfast Rental Report from Citylets.
There was a steady rise in the number of available rental properties over the two-year period since the firm began collating data on the private rented sector in Northern Ireland.
And the report said it appeared an additional hike in demand for private rented property had occurred as a result of ‘some disaffection with home ownership’ caused by the recent considerable decline in house prices and the lack of availability of mortgage finance.
The report continued that tenants in Belfast and Greater Belfast paid average monthly rents of £564 during the three months to the end of June, compared to £544 in the first quarter.
This represented a 3.7 percent quarterly rise, following two drops in as many quarters. But it was still a fall over the past year, however, of 6.6 percent when compared to the rents of £604 in the second quarter of 2009.
In addition, the average time taken for a property to be let dropped to 48 days, from 57 days during 2010’s first three months.
This also represented a notable improvement on the 73 days figure recorded in Q1 2009, but exceeded Scotland’s equivalent time to let (TTL) by 10 days.
In another positive development for Northern Irish buy to let insurance policyholders, there was also a decline in the proportion of properties taking longer than four weeks to rent, from 72 percent in Q2 2009 to 60 percent 12 months later.
All property types and sizes except one-bed apartments saw improvements in their TTL in Q2 2010.
The shortest TTL was recorded for three-bed houses, at 43 days, while two-bed apartments had the shortest TTL, at 56 days.
Citylets spokesman Dan Cookson told the Homemove website the results are good news for a sector which generated in excess of £620 million in receipts to the local economy each year.
He added the PRS had fared well when compared to the considerable declines in overall house prices.
The Department of Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) latest May 2010 Northern Ireland house price data reported an average mix adjusted price of £168,484, which was 34.9 percent shy of the peak of August 2007.
The report said that heightened demand and a decline in supply were likely to further increase rents for the rest of 2010.
It also warned, however, that the large proportion (45 percent) of tenants in receipt of housing benefit, and the probable large upcoming cuts in public expenditure, could have considerable adverse consequences for the PRS.
