Not one 'HAP' property to rent in Cork city or suburbs

There are currently no properties to rent within the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) limits in Cork city centre or suburbs, according to a new report.

The snapshot study undertaken by homeless charity Simon over three consecutive days, on Ireland’s most used property website and app, Daft.ie, tracks the number of properties advertised to rent within HAP limits in 16 areas, including Cork city centre and Cork city suburbs.

The Cork areas were two out of twelve areas where there were no properties to rent through HAP.

This marks a slight decrease from last March, when there was just one HAP property in the city centre and none in the suburbs.

In 2025, none of the four quarterly reports identified any properties available within HAP limits in Cork city, while just one was found in the suburbs in December 2025.

In the latest report, entitled 'Locked Out of the Market', only two properties were available at standard HAP rates nationwide, and there were just 20 properties available within even discretionary HAP limits, across the 16 areas studied by Simon across Ireland.

Just 2% of the total identified properties to rent were available within HAP limits nationally, down from 2024’s and 2025’s average of 3%, 2023’s 4%, 2022’s 8%, and 2021’s 28%.

Additionally, 85% of the 20 properties available through HAP were in Dublin, where the discretionary rate allows up to an additional 50% on the standard rate. The rate is limited to 35% in Cork and elsewhere.

AVAILABLE TO RENT AT ANY PRICE

The report also looks at ‘properties available to rent at any price’, and again found that the majority — 64% — were in Dublin.

When compared with the March 2026 report, seven of the 16 study areas reproduced the number of properties available to rent, including Cork city suburbs, which had 50 properties. That was a reduction of three.

Cork city centre was one of the eight study areas that saw an increase in the number of such properties available to rent, at 67.

A spokesperson for Simon said that the report is especially important in the context of the new rental laws, which came in to force in March.

The spokesperson said: “While changes, such as six-year tenancies of minimum duration and limits on annual rent increases, may provide greater stability for some renters, they do not address the fundamental issue of affordability, particularly for households reliant on HAP.

“Crucially, provisions allowing rents to be reset to market levels between tenancies, or at the end of a six-year cycle, risk further widening the gap between HAP limits and actual rents.

“Without substantial and sustained adjustments to HAP rates, many households will continue to be effectively locked out of the rental market.”

The Echo recently reported that 40% more people in Cork received a notice of termination of their tenancy at the start of this year when compared to the end of last year.