Open-market rents across the country are now 43 per cent higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest rental report by Daft.ie.
The report also found that the number of homes available to rent has fallen back again after some improvement seen last year.
It said at the beginning of February, there were fewer than 2,300 homes available to rent across the country.
The Daft.ie report said the average open-market rent nationwide in the final quarter of the 2024 was €1,956 per month.
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Overall market rents rose by an average of 5.7 per cent during 2024, the Daft.ie rental report said.
It maintained that this was down slightly from the 6.8 per cent increase recorded in 2023.
The report said that in Dublin, rents in the final quarter of last year were four per cent higher than a year earlier – at €2,481 – while outside the capital, they were seven per cent higher on average – the smallest gap in almost two years.
In Cork and Galway cities, rents rose by ten per cent during 2024, while in Waterford city, they rose by 7.4 per cent.
However, the Daft.ie report said that in Limerick, inflation remained very high, with market rents increasing by 19 per cent during 2024. Outside the cities, rents increased 6.2 per cent on average.
In Limerick city the average market rent in the final quarter of last year was €2,271.
The report said while the availability of homes to rent improved during most of 2023 and 2024, especially in Dublin, in recent months, this trend had reversed and the number of homes available to rent on the open market had fallen.
“On February 1st, there were fewer than 2,300 homes available to rent across the country, down one quarter on the same date a year previously and well below the 2015-2019 average of almost 4,400.”
The author of the report author Ronan Lyons, associate professor in economics at Trinity College Dublin, said:
“An acute shortage of rental housing continues to plague the market, driving rents in the open market further up and creating a wedge between those that get the benefit from rent controls and those that don’t. Rents for movers have increased by almost half since rent controls were tightened in 2021, while rents for ‘stayers’ have risen by just seven per cent in the same time.”
“As the rental crisis enters its second decade, significant reform is needed to rent controls both to avoid a situation where the pressure in the market falls disproportionately on some renters and, more importantly, to ensure that new supply comes on stream over the coming years. Rising rents are a signal of a shortage of rental housing. The ultimate solution to that shortage is to ensure new rental housing is built. This must be central to housing policy for the new Government.”
