national

Rents set to soar - Study

A new study of the rental housing market predicts that rents will rise by between 22% and 26% over the next two-and-a-half years.

The research has been carried out by the real estate company Savills and is based on CSO data.

The researchers say they have found a link between the percentage of vacant rental properties and the rate of rent increases.

Dr John McCartney, Savills' Director of Research, said: "There's a very strong relationship between movements in the vacancy rate and movements in rental growth.

"Over the last 31 quarters, 95% of all the ups and downs in the rental growth index have been explained by movements in the vacancy rate."