it seems a lot of the city center apartments are section 23,
all snapped up for the capital allowances, so rental returns on them isn't necessarily the main aim of their owners. Also management charges often represent a large portion of these reduced rents (eg about 1k our of a 6/7k rent).
Not sure how the resale values of these will pan out when the allowances are used up, so personally I'd steer clear unless you badly need relief ...
if you're keen on the city, the broad base seems to be lowish paid city workers or young professionals who share, with backup of health board tenants. If you agree on this rental base, there are quite a few 2/3 bed townhouses built in the last 15 years, an example would be a 3 bed terrace, 175k, gross rental 8.4k ( 4.8% gross ), no management fees. these seem ok to me( well compared to dublin anyway)
for what it's worth, and this is obviously just my experience, I've found the Eastern Europeans to be the dream tenants, often filling other properties with their new arrival friends.
Also at this multiple even worst case, I wouldn't expect them to fall that much without serious interest rate rises. I would think they're certainly safer than places on 2% yields gross that have been flying on capital appreciation elsewhere.
Basically, Limerick, if you select right, is good yields, steady prices, all in all good long term fundamentals in my view.