A new report has found that open-market rents are now 10.7 per cent higher than they were last year, with the average rent nationwide just under €1,800 per month.
The €1,792 average rent compares with €1,387 in the first quarter of 2020 and a low of €765 seen in late 2011.
The latest report by property website Daft.ie shows that market rents in the second quarter of 2023 rose by an average of 2.4 per cent compared with the first three months of the year.
The report found a noticeable difference between trends in Dublin and elsewhere in the second quarter.
In the capital, market rents rose by just 0.3 per cent quarter on quarter – the second three-month period in a row of muted increases.
However, outside Dublin, the average increase between March and June was 4.3 per cent, the second-largest quarterly increase recorded outside the capital since the report began in 2006.
The property website said there were fewer than 1,200 homes available to rent nationwide on August 1st.
It said availability remains extremely tight compared with other years and is less than a third of what had been typical in the 2015-2019 period, which was already one of scarcity.
Commenting on the report, its author, Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin, said: “The figures in this latest rental market report indicate something of a split in market conditions.
“In Dublin, the construction of new rental housing – together perhaps with the effect of layoffs in some larger employers – has led to an easing of pressure in the open market.
“Conditions remain far from benign for prospective tenants but the mismatch between strong demand and weak supply is not as stark as in recent quarters.
“Outside the capital, however, the lack of new rental homes means that the imbalance between supply and demand is still there.
“Indeed, in Connacht-Ulster, rents jumped over 6 per cent in just three months, pushing the annual rate of inflation to its highest level ever recorded (21.2 per cent) in a series stretching back to early 2006.”
A separate Daft.ie survey found that, on average, rents for sitting tenants increased by 3.8 per cent in the last 12 months.
