Huge rise in households headed by jobless

A HUGE hike in numbers renting accommodation and a significant rise in households headed by unemployed people have emerged as key housing trends in the 2011 census.

The detailed examination of census returns shows households headed by the unemployed rose from 15,000 in 2006 to 50,792 in 2011. In more than half of those (51 per cent), no one is employed.

Non-Irish nationals paid slightly more rent in 2011 for private accommodation in urban areas than their Irish counterparts and lived in fewer rooms, with Africans and Asians faring worst.

Less rent was paid for private accommodation in 2011 with €167 the average weekly rent, while local authority rents increased in most areas with an average €59 payment.

At €260 per week, average rents for private accommodation were highest in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and lowest in Leitrim (at €94).

The statistics were released yesterday in the latest in a series of reports from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Census 2011.

The report, Profile 4 – The Roof Over Our Heads, found there were nearly 2 million permanent dwellings in the State last year (1,994,845), 225,232 more than in 2006. The 12 per cent rise in housing stock between 2006 and 2011 follows a 21 per cent or 309,560 rise in stock between 2002 and 2006.

Some 474,788 of households (29 per cent) were in rented accommodation in 2011, up 47 per cent from 2006, while home ownership fell from 74.7 to 69.7 per cent.

The number of mortgaged owner-occupied dwellings in 2011 was 583,148, a slight fall from 593,513 in 2006.

Apartment dwelling rose significantly with 177,587 occupied apartments in 2011, up 27 per cent on the 2006 figure of 139,872. Apartments accounted for 10.9 per cent of all occupied households in 2011 and almost one-third of all household types in Dublin city, the highest of any local authority area.

An increase since 2002 was recorded in the number of households with three rooms or fewer. The increase, coinciding with the high rate of apartment building, was concentrated in urban areas, where households of three rooms or fewer rose from 15 per cent in 2002 to 21 per cent in 2011.

Dermot Corcoran of the CSO, who wrote the report, noted that one person per room was the national average in 1926. This has risen to one person per two rooms for Irish nationals but for many non-Irish nationals the ratio of one person to one room still applied.

In urban areas, households headed by non-Irish nationals paid an average €181 weekly to private landlords, slightly higher than the €178 paid by Irish householders. Rents were broadly similar for both groups in rural areas and Mr Corcoran said he did not consider the urban rent differential significant.

With the exception of British nationals, home ownership rates among non-Irish nationals were low in 2011 but had still increased from 2006. Polish householders with a loan or mortgage increased from 648 in 2006 to 1,820 in 2011.

The census also disclosed considerable regional differences in types of fuel used for central heating with oil more prevalent in Ulster and the southeast.

Natural gas was used by some 70 per cent of houses and apartments in the Dublin region while the midlands region had a higher proportion of occupied dwellings relying on solid fuels (coal, peat and wood pellets).

About 1.1 million homes were connected to public sewerage schemes in 2011; 437,652 (27.5 per cent) households used individual septic tanks; and 50,259 (3 per cent) households adopted other individual sewerage systems.

SURVEY: MAIN POINTS

* Home ownership rates have fallen from 74.7 per cent in 2006 to 69.7 per cent in 2011.

* The number of rented households is up by 47 per cent – 474,788 in 2011, up from 323,007 in 2006.

* Move to apartment living: 177,587 occupied apartments in 2011, up 27 per cent from 139,872 in 2006.

* One in 12 households with a mortgage is headed by an unemployed person (50,792 in total).

* 583,148 of almost two million dwellings nationwide are mortgaged.

* 289,451 dwellings are vacant nationwide, more than double the 2002 figure.