Irish Rents Rise 7.7% as Supply Shortage Deepens in Dublin
Average two-bed apartment rent reaches €2,204 nationally as rents outside Dublin continue to catch up with the capital and fewer than 2,400 homes are available to rent nationwide
24 August 2026 | 📧 editor@ipropertyradio.com
Irish market rents were 7.7% higher in June than a year earlier, despite quarterly rent growth slowing sharply following the record increase recorded at the start of 2026, according to the latest Daft.ie Rental Report.
Listed market rents increased by 1.4% between March and June, compared with a record 4.4% quarterly increase in the first three months of the year. The latest increase was also slightly below the average second-quarter rise of 1.6% recorded between 2015 and 2024.
The average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment nationally reached €2,204 in the second quarter. Market rents are now 42% above their pre-Covid level and 78% above their Celtic Tiger peak.
The figures point to an increasingly national rental affordability problem, with some of the strongest rent increases now occurring outside Dublin.
Across Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford cities, annual market rent inflation reached 10.1%, the highest of the five regions examined by Daft.ie. Leinster outside Dublin recorded annual growth of 9.8%, Connacht-Ulster 9.3% and Munster outside the cities 9.1%.
Dublin recorded a lower annual increase of 6.5%. However, affordability pressures in the capital remain severe, with the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment at €2,551 during the quarter.
The regional gap has narrowed significantly because rents outside Dublin have risen substantially faster since the pandemic. Market rents in Dublin are now 25% above pre-Covid levels, compared with increases of 65% across the four other major cities, 75% in Munster outside the cities and 90% in Connacht-Ulster.
Daft.ie economist Ronan Lyons said in his commentary that a two-bedroom apartment in Dublin cost close to three times its Connacht-Ulster equivalent for much of the 2010s, with the ratio peaking at just over three in 2018. It has now fallen below two for the first time since the series began in 2004.
The report links this geographic shift to changes in where people live and work since Covid, with rental demand moving beyond Dublin into markets where the rental stock was designed for a smaller share of households and where new supply has struggled to respond because of construction costs.
There are particularly sharp pressures in Ireland’s regional cities. Average two-bedroom apartment rents reached €2,336 in Galway City, up 13% year-on-year, while Cork City rents averaged €2,168, up 10.3%. Limerick City averaged €2,244, an increase of 7.8%, while Waterford City stood at €1,637, up 9.6%.
Some individual rental categories recorded substantially larger increases. A one-bedroom apartment in Galway City averaged €1,647, up 22.2% year-on-year. A two-bedroom house in Galway City rose 21% to €2,274, while a one-bedroom apartment in Cork City increased 17.6% to €1,781.
Outside the cities, the increases are also significant. Two-bedroom apartment rents reached €1,995 in Kildare, €2,174 in Wicklow, €1,879 in Meath and €1,827 in Louth. In Kilkenny, the average listed rent for a two-bedroom apartment increased 29.5% year-on-year to €1,670.
In Munster outside the cities, the average two-bedroom apartment rent reached €1,735 in Cork, up 16.9%, €1,521 in Kerry, up 14.7%, and €1,505 in Clare, up 14.6%. The equivalent rent in Tipperary was €1,359, up 6.7%.
Connacht-Ulster remains cheaper in absolute terms but has experienced the largest increase since before Covid. Two-bedroom apartment rents averaged €1,522 in Galway outside the city, €1,375 in Mayo, €1,393 in Roscommon, €1,441 in Sligo and €1,300 in Leitrim.
The supply figures show why rent pressures remain acute despite some improvement in the number of properties advertised.
There were 2,373 homes available to rent nationally on 1 August, 5% more than a year earlier but still the fourth-lowest August total in Daft.ie records going back to 2006. Availability remains 46% below its 2015-2019 average.
Just under 39,800 homes were listed for rent during the 12 months to July. That was 1% higher year-on-year but 44% below the 2015-2019 average.
The national improvement also conceals a significant divergence between Dublin and the rest of the country.
There were 1,123 homes available to rent in Dublin on 1 August, down 18% year-on-year and the lowest August figure since 2022. Dublin was the only one of Daft.ie’s five regions to record a year-on-year fall in the stock of homes available.
Outside Dublin, availability increased by 40%. Across Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford cities, 295 homes were available, almost twice the 148 recorded a year earlier. However, that stock remained 42% below the 2015-2019 average.
Leinster outside Dublin had 514 homes available, up 30% year-on-year, while Munster outside the cities had 252, an increase of 47%. Connacht-Ulster had just 189 homes available, only 3% more than a year earlier and 70% below the 2015-2019 average – the largest supply deficit of any region.
The room rental market is moving in the opposite direction. National room rents increased by 1.5% during the second quarter and by 6.3% year-on-year. The average monthly rent for a double room in a house reached €812, with room rents now 39% above pre-Covid levels.
There were 2,480 rooms available nationally on 1 August, down 20% year-on-year and the lowest August total since 2022. Dublin had just 933 rooms available, down 26%.
The average double room in a house cost €922 per month in Dublin, €739 across the other four cities, €698 in Leinster outside Dublin, €659 in Munster outside the cities and €596 in Connacht-Ulster.
A further divide is evident between existing tenants and people entering the open market. Daft.ie found that rents paid by sitting tenants increased by around 2.1% annually, less than one-third of the rate of increase in open-market rents. Since 2016, rents for sitting tenants have increased by 22%, compared with a 78% increase in open-market rents.
The report suggests the record 4.4% increase in rents during the first quarter was a one-off adjustment associated with changes to Ireland’s rent regulation system rather than the beginning of a new quarterly growth trend.
Lyons said the 1.4% second-quarter increase suggests the first-quarter surge was related to the scope for rent resets when tenancies ended. The effect appears largely to have worked through Dublin and the other major cities, where quarterly increases slowed to 0.8% and 1.1% respectively, while stronger adjustments continued in Leinster outside Dublin at 2.9% and Munster outside the cities at 2.8%.
The report also cautions against reading the current annual inflation rate as an indication of the likely direction of rents over the coming year. The record first-quarter increase remains within the annual comparison and will continue to influence the headline rate until it falls out of the calculation in early 2027.
The broader data nevertheless show that Ireland’s rental shortage has become increasingly geographically dispersed. While Dublin remains the country’s most expensive market and is experiencing a renewed contraction in availability, rent growth since Covid has been substantially greater elsewhere, leaving renters in regional cities and counties facing costs increasingly closer to those historically associated with the capital.
