More pressure could be put on Dublin’s stretched housing market after a number of major US banks warned staff whose roles are moving from London to other European cities because of Brexit that they will only be paid commuting expenses for six months after the UK’s departure.

Banks, including Morgan Stanley, are preparing to offer short-term support for staff currently based in London as their jobs move abroad, but a source said that the bank wants those employees to live in the cities where their roles will be based.

Banks are moving positions to cities including Dublin, Frankfurt and Paris.

The commitment to just short-term commuting support was revealed by the ‘Financial Times’ newspaper yesterday.

“Financial support for short-term commuters is intended to help people who do not want to move their children in the middle of the school year, or have other logistical reasons for not being able to move immediately,” the newspaper reported.

It added: “At JPMorgan, these benefits, which include smoothing tax differences between two countries, and housing and travel, would typically be phased out six months after an employee transfers,” two people familiar with the plans said.

Some firms have already indicated privately that securing accommodation in Dublin has been challenging for staff planning to move to the city as a result of Brexit.

The IDA has attempted to downplay the rental crisis in the capital.

The agency advised its executives to tell prospective investors that the housing shortage was “not unique to Ireland”, and claimed that the rent for a small “one-person apartment” in Dublin was just over €1,000 a month.

According to the Residential Tenancies Board in the second quarter of 2018, the standardised average rent for Dublin stood at €1,587.

This is a €128 average monthly increase over a 12-month period.

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