Irish rents have risen 11.7 per cent since March 2022, according to the latest report from property website Daft.ie.
South County Dublin average rents from January to March were a whopping €2,586, the highest in the country. South Dublin City prices were an average of €2,446, while rents in Dublin City were €2,300.
North Dublin city saw average rents of €2,249 during the first three months of the year. The nationwide average was €1,750, compared to €1,387 in the first quarter of 2020, and a low of just €765 per month seen in late 2011.
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However, rents from January to March were an average of 1% higher than in the last quarter of 2022, marking the smallest increase since 2020.
In Dublin, rents increased by 0.5% quarter-on-quarter, the same rate seen in the rest of Leinster. Ireland's four other cities saw rents reducing by 1.8 per cent on average during the same period.
In the case of Cork city, this is the first time in almost a decade that rents have not risen quarter-on-quarter.
Meanwhile, rents continued to rise strongly in Munster, Connacht and Ulster strongly outside of cities, increasing by 3.8% on average in the first three months of the year.
The Daft.ie report’s author, Trinity College Dublin associate professor of economics Ronan Lyons said it offers “some crumbs of comfort for those of us gravely concerned about the health of Ireland’s rental market”.
“For over a decade now, the rental market has been characterised by worsening availability and, as a consequence, higher and higher rents," he said.
Mr Lyons added that the rental market has been "under increasing stress over the last two years" due to society reopening after Covid-19 and the Ukrainian refugee crisis.
“There are some signs that, if things are not getting better, then they are not getting much worse," he said.
“Availability of homes to rent has stopped falling, albeit at extremely low levels, while the quarterly change in rents seen January to March was far smaller than the average increase seen in 2021 and 2022.
“Nonetheless, the solution to Ireland’s rental housing shortage requires significant action by policymakers."
Commenting on the Daft.ie report, Sinn Fein Housing spokesperson Eoin O Broin said the Government is "failing renters".
"Despite the falling private rental stock and rising private rents, Government's cost rental delivery is appallingly low. Just 684 cost rental homes were delivered last year," he said.
"Government must accept that its cost rental targets are too low. They must also accept that the price of these cost rental units is too high.
"They must dramatically increase and accelerate the delivery of these much needed cost rental homes and ensure that they are genuinely affordable to working people."
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