Nationally, rent prices fell marginally for the first time in over seven years, according to a new quarterly report released by Daft.ie.

However, this decrease mainly occurred in rural areas, with urban rent prices remaining high and still on the rise.

Daft.ie's report looked at rent prices from September-December 2019.

In Cork City, rents have risen by 5.5% in the last year. The average rent in Leeside city is now €1,386.

In the rest of Cork, rents were 5.5% higher in the final quarter of 2019 compared to 2018. The average listed rent is now €1016, up 74% from its lowest point.

Similar to Cork city, rent in Dublin and Galway cities rose between September and December.

Dublin rents are up 3.5%, however, this was the slowest rate of increase since 2008.

Galway city saw a 5.5% increase in rent prices compared to 2018.

Overall, rents in Ireland only fell by 0.1% in the final three months of 2019.

Ireland's average national rent is now €1,402.

In some good news, the number of homes available to rent increased by 10% compared to 2018.

However, the number of rental homes on the market is still down 80% from its 2009 peak.

Ronan Lyons, an economist at Trinity College Dublin and author of this new Daft Report, says a key issue of the general election is housing.

"With the election of a new government, housing, and in particular the rental sector, are likely to be key parts of the new government’s priorities."

However, he doesn't believe a rent freeze is the way forward. 

"Despite the desire for a quick fix, such as rent freezes, no such quick fix exists. By worsening insider-outsider dynamics, rent freezes are likely to further harm those most affected by the shortage of accommodation.

"And, if somehow applied to newly-built rental homes, rent controls could prove calamitous for a country that desperately needs new rental homes but has very high construction costs."