Average advertised rents increased by 1.6% in the second quarter of this year, according to the latest rental report by Daft.ie – marking the 18th quarter in a row where rents have gone up, reports RTE.
This most recent rise, combined with increases in the previous three quarters – particularly during the first three months of 2025 – has resulted in market rents being, on average, 6.9% higher than this time last year.
Between April and June, the average open market rent nationwide was €2,055 per month. This is a significant jump from a low of €765 in 2011 and represents a 51% increase since before the Covid-19 pandemic, reports RTE.
Report author Ronan Lyons, an Economics Professor at Trinity College Dublin, stated: “The upward march of rents continues, as availability shows little sign of improving. As has been the case for almost 15 years, the solution to a deficit of rental housing is ensuring more rental housing gets built.”
The report shows that just under 2,300 rental homes were available nationwide on August 1, reports RTE.
That figure is 14% lower than the same date last year and is nearly half the average availability recorded between 2015 and 2019.
In Dublin, the rate of new rental supply has dropped significantly, and the rate of inflation in the capital – currently at 6.5% – is now nearly equal to that in the rest of the country (7.3%).
Limerick city recorded the highest rent inflation at 14.9%, continuing a trend of steep increases in recent quarters, according to Daft.ie, reports RTE.
In Galway city, rents were up 8.5% compared to a year earlier, while Cork city experienced an 11.8% rise in the same period.
Waterford city also saw substantial rent inflation, with an annual increase of 12.5%.
Outside Ireland’s five largest cities, rents climbed by an average of 6.2% over the past year.
“The average open-market rent nationwide – at a little over €2,000 a month – is twice the rent seen at the Celtic Tiger peak and 50% higher than the level of rents that prevailed just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit,” Mr Lyons said, reports RTE.
“As has consistently been the case over the past 15 years, the substantial increases in rents are being driven by extreme scarcity of rental housing, relative to underlying need,” he added, reports RTE.
“Since the last report, the Government has moved to relax some of the strictest aspects of Ireland’s rent controls. While this is likely to help boost investment in new rental supply, those changes will not take effect until next year,” he said, reports RTE.
“Further, Ireland’s lengthy planning process means that it will be a number of years before any increase in supply is meaningful enough to start addressing the large deficit of rental housing in the country,” he added, reports RTE.
Meanwhile, new research from Chill Insurance released over the weekend shows that a first-time buyer in Dublin now needs to earn €103,500 to qualify for a mortgage under current Central Bank lending rules.
The research compared Central Statistics Office data on median house prices for first-time buyers with average local incomes.
It found that in Dublin, the median price for a first-time buyer home is €460,000. However, with a median income of €47,873, this leaves a gap of €55,627, reports RTE.
Wicklow and Kildare also feature prominently among the least affordable counties, with required salaries approaching €100,000.
In contrast, counties such as Roscommon, Longford and Donegal are still considered the most affordable, though incomes of around €50,000 are still necessary to enter the property market.
For example, the median house price for a first-time buyer in Roscommon is €225,000, reports RTE.
To afford this, a salary of just over €50,000 is required. However, with the median income in Roscommon just above €40,000, there remains a shortfall of €10,000 for potential buyers.
From an economic standpoint, whether referring to home buying or renting, Mr Lyons believes the country faces a “shortage of space” and that it shouldn’t be framed as a choice between one or the other, reports RTE.
“Some of the policy measures have been predicated on ‘well, if we do this, then we can’t do that,’” said Mr Lyons, reports RTE.
“What we actually need is more of all types of space, more space for students, more space for people coming here just to visit, more space for first-time buyers who are starting a family, more space for those who are downsizing and after they’ve retired. I worry that while there has been a lot of positive signals from politicians and policy makers over the last year or so, especially around the election around increasing the targets for building homes, the targets still are inadequate, we’ve a significant housing deficit of about 300,000 homes and setting the targets is an important first step but how do we get the capacity to follow the targets? That’s the key second step,” he added, reports RTE.
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