A listing that offered an apartment for rent in Ireland with a bizarre catch seems emblematic of the country’s housing crisis.
The advertisement for the apartment in Dublin circulated online this week among stunned housing-seekers. According to a screenshot, the one-bedroom, one-bathroom residence was available starting September 12.
For €2,500 (about $2,500 USD) monthly rent, a real estate agent promised the “complete apartment” available “Thursday to Monday weekly only.”
“Landlord requires use Monday, Tuesday and Weds nights,” according to the listing. “Don’t email if this doesn’t suit. If you email for long term let and haven’t read this you will be ignored.”
surely im not reading this right… €2500 p/m for a 1 bed apartment, only available 4 nights of the week. the landlord will be using it for the other 3. pic.twitter.com/dzR6HahYuU
— babywoman (@aouife) September 13, 2022
The listing was apparently from MyHome.ie, an Irish property rental site, per the screenshot. It appeared to be no longer active as of Thursday.
“Surely I’m not reading this right,” said Aoife Stapleton, who shared the unusual housing arrangement on Twitter. “Say it’s a 4 week month, you’re paying over €155 a night for the apartment?”
Newsweek reached out to both MyHome.ie and Stapleton for comment.
The listing underscores a dire housing crisis in Ireland. Demand for housing has shot up, as the country’s booming economy has ushered in employees who can afford higher prices. Meanwhile, years of housing undersupply and a wave of small landlords leaving the market has made it extremely difficult for people to find homes.
On August 1, there were just 716 homes available to rent across a country of 5.1 million people, according to a report from Irish property website Daft.ie. Fewer than 300 were available in Dublin. The report also found that rents increased 12.6 percent compared to last year, the highest rate since Daft.ie launched its index 16 years ago.
The scramble to find housing has led to enormous crowds for apartment viewings. On August 16, Dublin resident Conor Finn said he stood in a line of over 100 people to see one rental property.
“This is what a house viewing now consists of in Dublin,” he said on Twitter, together with an image of the line snaking around a block.
Later on, he showed a video of the line still standing after the sun had set.
“An hour later and I’ve left the queue after no real movement or chance of viewing the house tonight,” he said. “People were still joining the end of queue as I left.”
Desperation to find housing has also made people vulnerable to accommodation fraud. In August, the Irish police warned students to be wary while seeking places to live this academic year, announcing that reports of housing scams were up 30 percent since before the pandemic.
Scammers are stealing an average of €1,300 (about $1,300 USD) from their victims, with half of the crimes taking place in Dublin, said police.
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