Revealed: Stoneybatter is Ireland’s largest gay neighbourhood
Rents and house prices are surging faster in Ireland’s top ten gayborhoods, than in neighbouring areas according to new analysis released today by Daft.ie.
The research, which identified the top ten Irish neighbourhoods with the largest proportion of same-sex couples, found that a clear rent and house price premium has emerged in recent years.
Ireland’s top 10 Pride Filled Places (at least 7% of the population were estimated to be in same-sex relationships).
Rents in Dublin’s pride-filled places are now 7% or €150 per month higher than neighbouring areas in the city.
Just as rents have been rising faster in Dublin’s pride-filled places, so too have sale prices. In the last five years alone, house prices have risen by 72% in these areas, compared with a 60% rise in over 30 neighbouring districts that were also analysed.
The research, conducted by economist and assistant professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin, Ronan Lyons, found that Stoneybatter had the largest concentration of same-sex couples in the capital, followed by Grand Canal Dock and Christchurch.
Author of the Daft.ie report and assistant professor of economics in Trinity College Dublin; Ronan Lyons said, “In Dublin’s ten most Pride-Filled Places, 8% of the population are in same-sex relationships, almost three times the fraction elsewhere in the city. The Top Ten areas saw their share in same-sex relationships rise from 5.6% in 2011 to 8% in 2016. Elsewhere in the city, the share rose by just 0.2%. Unsurprisingly, this strong level of demand in these neighbourhoods is pushing up sale and rental prices, as the figures show.”
Martin Clancy from Daft.ie said; “As we approach Dublin’s pride weekend, this data serves both as a celebration and barometer of social change in Ireland over the last number of years. Similar research has been carried out in the United States, but for Ireland, this is a first and something which is both interesting and informative about the evolution of Dublin’s neighbourhood’s and the clear emergence of pride-filled places in the capital.”
Note on methodology:
For this report, we defined same-sex couples as those households where there were only two persons in the household and where both persons were of the same gender and over the age of 30. This, of course, is not a perfect measure. On the one hand, it may overstate the presence of same-sex couples in some areas, as it captures, for example, siblings of the same gender who share a home (without any parents or children). On the other hand, it may understate the presence of same-sex relationships, as it doesn’t capture households where those in a same-sex relationship share their property with others (including others in same-sex relationships) or those who are gay or lesbian but not in a same-sex relationship. As the first limitation is likely to be distributed across all areas, we believe the second limitation is more relevant and for that reason, our estimates of the fraction in same-sex relationships is likely to be a lower-bound.
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