Almost 1,000 apartments in Iceland have now been listed at Leigulistinn rental housing agency, of which 825 are located in the capital region. At the same time last year, only 200 apartments in total were listed for rent.
From the suburb of Grafarholt in Reykjavík. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
According to Morgunbladid, listings started increasing at the beginning of last summer and since then the price of rent has dropped by 20 percent on average.
Housing rental agency Rentus has a similar story to tell. “People negotiate about the price of rent more often than they used to. In some cases the decrease is vast,” said Rentus manager Björgvin Vídir Gudmundsson.
However, according to Leigulistinn employee Hildur Ketilsdóttir, people cannot always afford to lower the price of rent because they have to cover the down payments of their mortgages, although in some cases they are forced to accept what they can get.
Rental agencies also report on an increase in supply of industrial housing—at Leigulistinn twice as many buildings for such purposes are available for rent than at this time last year.
Click here to read about the Housing Financing Fund (HFF) overtaking mortgages.
