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12th November 2025
11:25am GMT
Rental costs are a third higher than pre-Covid times. They have risen now for 18 quarters in a row, according to the latest Draft.ie rental report.
Professor Ronan Lyons, the author of the report, claims that upward pressure on rents is set to remain due to an acute shortage of accommodation.
"Supply remains tight – and indeed worsening, with one-quarter fewer homes available to rent on November 1 than a year before. Thus, upward pressure on rents is likely to remain," he said.
The researchers found that the cost of renting was up by 4.3% in the year to September due to tight supply.
In the three months leading up to September, market rents rose by an average of 1.7%.
Now, market rents are a whopping one-third higher than pre-Covid levels, and even two-thirds higher than their Celtic Tiger peak in late 2007.
The average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment nationwide, between June and September, was €2,080.
The cost of a two-bed flat surpassed €2,000 for the first time at the end of last year.
Renting a two-bed will set you back €150 more than it did two years ago.
At the start of this month, there were approximately 1,900 homes available to rent nationwide. According to Draft.ie this was down 21% on last year, which is less than half the average between 2015 and 2019.
In the country's capital, the homes available to rent have gone down by almost one-third in the past year.
The report shows that rental inflation remains lower in Dublin than the national average, with prices rising by 2.7% in the capital compared with 4.3% nationally.
However, in other parts of Ireland, rents continue to climb.
Rents are up 9.3% year-on-year in Cork, while Galway and Limerick have seen rents increase by 6%. In Waterford city, rents are up 11.4% year-on-year, while outside the cities, the rate of inflation sits just above 5%.
"This is a market starved of supply. Rents are now one-third higher than they were just over five years ago and indeed two-thirds higher than their Celtic Tiger peak," Prof Lyons said.
He goes on to say that the easing in rental inflation from 13% in 2022 to 4.3% now has been welcome.
"However, the sharp fall in availability of homes to rent suggests that any further pressure on rents over the coming quarter will be upwards," he said.
According to Prof Lyons, it would take years for the new rental supply necessary to be added around the country, and only if that were to happen, conditions in the rental market would improve.
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