Rents up 14%, transatlantic flights for Belfast, and how to get a return on your savings

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A property rental queue in Dublin. Rents rose by an average of 14 per cent nationally in the third quarter when compared with a year earlier, according to Daft.ie. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien / THE IRISH TIMES
A property rental queue in Dublin. Rents rose by an average of 14 per cent nationally in the third quarter when compared with a year earlier, according to Daft.ie. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien / THE IRISH TIMES

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Rents nationally rose on average 14.1 per cent in the third quarter of this year when compared with the same period of 2021. That was a record rise on the back of “an extreme shortage of rental homes”, according to property website Daft.ie. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details.

In our personal finance feature, Fiona Reddan looks at ways that you can get a 2 per cent return on your savings by placing your money elsewhere in the EU. If you’d like to read more about the issues that affect your pocket sign up to On the Money, a new weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers. You can read the latest edition of the newsletter here.

The European commissioner for justice, Didier Reynders, has warned that large fines are possible if tech companies are unable to comply with EU regulations due to sweeping lay-offs of staff, ahead of meetings this week with Twitter and Meta in Dublin. Naomi O’Leary reports.

A new airline called Fly Atlantic has announced plans to offer cheap transatlantic flights from Belfast beginning in summer 2024. Barry O’Halloran has the details.

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Germany has quietly raised the curtain on a new era of fossil fuels. As part of Berlin’s race to free itself of Russian gas, the first of five planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals has been completed in Wilhelmshaven on its North Sea coast. Derek Scally has the story.

Latest accounts for the Irish unit of global online recruiter Indeed show that it returned to profit last year, writes Ciara O’Brien.

In Q&A, a reader notes how their father is in a nursing home with the family property lying idle. They’d like to buy the home and pay out their siblings and the State’s Fair Deal scheme. Is this possible under the rules of Fair Deal? Dominic Coyle offers a view.

In another Q&A, a reader wonders why they have been charged for closing their current accounts with Ulster Bank, which is exiting the Irish market. Dominic Coyle offers some guidance.

In her media and marketing column, Laura Slattery outlines how the cost-of-living crisis has taken the shine off Christmas for fashion retailers.

During the pandemic, housing in Dublin moved from being “seriously” unaffordable to “severely” unaffordable, according to US think tank Demographia. Cantillon explains why.

Former AIB executive Mark Bourke is plotting a stock market flotation at Portuguese lender Novo Banco when the timing is right, writes Cantillon.

In Me & My Money, Claire O’Neill, who runs Meab Enamels, tells Tony Clayton-Lea about how she treated herself to a trip to the Galápagos Islands for her 40th birthday. “It was an amazing adventure taken just before Covid, so I guess it was good preparation for what was going to be a long time of out-of-comfort-zone living.”

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