Mayo's rental crisis escalates with further hikes

Mayo’s rental crisis continues to escalate and there are fewer than 50 properties to rent in the county with the majority coming at a sky-high cost.

Anything available for less than €1,000 a month is a rarity with some exceeding the €2,000 mark.

The latest Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) rent report shows rents rising across the county for new and existing tenancies.

In Mayo, rents for new tenancies rocketed by 6.8% compared to 2023 figures. This makes the average new rent in Mayo an eye-watering €1,061 per month.

Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh is railing against the rent hikes. She said renters can’t afford another five years of spiralling costs.

“People from County Mayo are also impacted by higher rents in other areas as many are forced to leave Mayo to seek work in Galway, Limerick, Dublin and other places," she said. “The cost of living crisis has not abated and for many in Mayo winter is a time of increased costs for heat and electricity, not to mention the cost of Christmas."

The RTB says rents in rural areas outside rent pressure zones (RPZ) are increasing significantly, particularly in cases where a new tenant has taken over a rental. Between 2022 and 2024, rents were hiked by more than 8% in one-tenth of Dublin properties and one-fifth of rentals in rent pressure zones outside the capital.

Such a level of detail in rental analysis is only now available for the first time, enabled by the RTB beginning to register tenancies on an annual basis from 2021 onwards.

Under RPZ legislation, rents cannot be raised by more than 2% a year in a designated zone unless the property is exempt or the landlord has performed a "significant refurbishment" of the residence. Some 82% of the more than 182,000 rental properties considered by the analysis are in rent pressure zones.

Westport is Mayo’s only RPZ. Local councillor Peter Flynn said the designation has been a “disaster” by only serving to make landlords leave the market.