Editorial: No room at the inn for weary renters in Kilkenny

Worryingly, there is a serious and consistent dearth of residential properties available to rent in Kilkenny at present.

According to property website daft.ie, there are just a handful of properties available to rent in Kilkenny — seven in total — and none of these are in Kilkenny City.

In this week’s front page story we look at the resons as to why this is happening and speak to a prominent sales agent about a problematic exodus of one-off and smaller landlords selling up to cash in on record property prices.

Having no residential properties available to rent is obviously bad news for renters, including anyone looking to move here to work. Kilkenny prides itself as being an attractive place to live and visit and we are home to a plethora of successful businesses but we need to be able to provide adequate services. People need somewhere to live.

Housing is the most basic requirement and the local authority need to continue to acquire properties to bolster the market. We need more social and affordable housing. We also need to have a competitive rental market to entice people to live here, and that means building more homes.

There also needs to be further through given to bringing back into use our vacant stock . Early Census 2022 data shows the number of vacant units has grown in Kilkenny since 2016, contrary to the overall national picture, which saw a reduction. With property prices up 8% on last year, one wonders where the ceiling is.