According to the latest Daft.ie Rental Report, the average rent in Dublin city was 4% higher in the last three months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
That brings the average listed rent in the capital to a whopping €2,481 per month, which is 29% higher than what tenants were paying back when Covid-19 first hit in 2021.
Part of the reason for this is a serious lack of available rentals. As of February 1st, just 1,200 homes were on the market in Dublin - 25% fewer than the same time last year and one-third below the average supply from 2015 to 2019.
The trend isn’t just in Dublin though, rents across Ireland saw an average increase of 5.7% in 2024, which is slightly lower than the 6.8% jump in 2023.
The average monthly rent nationwide is now €1,956, which is 43% higher than before the pandemic.
One interesting shift is that Dublin’s rent inflation is now more in line with the rest of the country. While Dublin rents rose 4%, rents outside the capital climbed 7%, which is the smallest gap in nearly two years.
However, not all areas are seeing the same increases as Cork and Galway cities are seeing prices shoot up by 10%, while Waterford saw a 7.4% rise.
Limerick had the most dramatic jump of all, with rents surging 19% in 2024. Outside of major cities, rental costs went up by 6.2% on average.
For a while, rental availability seemed to be improving, especially in Dublin. But in recent months, that progress has done a u-turn.
On February 1st, fewer than 2,300 homes were available to rent across the country, which is 25% fewer than a year ago and well below the 2015-2019 average of 4,400.
According to Ronan Lyons, an economist at Trinity College Dublin and author of the report, the rental crisis is still in full swing and the problem is there simply aren’t enough homes to go around.
“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 percent in the same time."
While renters who have stayed put since 2021 have only seen their rents rise by 7%, those moving to new places are facing rent hikes of nearly 50%.
Lyons insisted that Ireland needs major rental reform to prevent an unfair divide between those covered by controls and those who aren’t.
More importantly, he stressed that the only real solution is to build more rental housing.
"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.”
In other words; until more homes are built, high rental costs aren’t going anywhere.
