‘The rental market is effectively gone’

Sinn Féin area representative Damian O Donoghue has once again highlighted the severe lack of rental housing in North Tipperary.

Mr O Donoghue said: “I have no doubt that the housing situation here has never been as bad. If you are currently looking to rent a house in North Tipperary, you do not have much choice.

“On Monday, January 10, there were no houses available to rent in Nenagh, according to Ireland’s main property website (Daft.ie), not one. There are also no houses to rent in Cloughjordan and only one property in Borrisokane, an apartment. These three areas have a combined population of 11,000 people. The rental market is effectively gone here.

“If we look at other areas in North Tipp, we see similar results. There are no houses to rent in Lorrha, no houses to rent in Dromineer, no houses to rent in Terryglass, no houses to rent in Ardcroney. The only property available to rent is a cottage in Puckane.

“So, from a quick search of the country’s main property website, only two rentals can be found for all the areas mentioned above. This is completely unacceptable and has caused a lot of stress for people trying to find somewhere to live. Not everyone can afford to buy a house, especially young people starting out. People are being forced to live away from their own towns and others are living with parents and grandparents.

“Such a lack of supply has also caused rents to rise locally, which does not help either. And the most frustrating part of all this is that the situation is not improving at all, in fact it is getting worse. Nothing short of a large-scale State building plan will help to fix this,” Mr O Donoghue said.