Cork has second-highest rent inflation in the country

Cork has the second-highest rent inflation in the country — up almost 12% in the second quarter of the year.

Nationally, market rents rose by 1.4% between March and June, according to the latest Daft.ie rental report.

This is a significant slowdown from the record 4.4% increase in the first quarter and slightly below the average quarterly increase seen over the last decade.

The average market rent for a two-bedroom apartment nationwide is now €2,204 per month, with market rents 42% above their pre-covid levels and 78% higher than 10 years ago.

Inflation remains high in the four major cities outside Dublin. 

The report shows market rents in the second quarter were 13% higher year-on-year in Galway City, 12% higher in Cork, and up 11% in Limerick. The rate in Waterford City, at 5.5%, was comparable to that seen in Dublin, where market rents in June were 6.5% higher than a year before.

Outside the cities, annual inflation in open-market rents was between 9% and 10% across Leinster, Munster, and Connacht-Ulster.

There were just under 2,400 homes available to rent nationwide on August 1. This is a rise of 5% on the same date a year earlier but masks a sharp divide: Availability in Dublin fell by 18% over the year, to fewer than 1,150 homes, while across the rest of the country it rose by 40%.

Availability remains low

Across the country, availability remains well below pre-pandemic norms, when there were typically over 4,300 homes to rent at any one time. Sitting tenants — ‘stayers’ — saw rents rise by 2.2% in the year to June on average, less than one third the growth seen by ‘movers’.

Since 2016, stayers’ rents have risen by 22% on average compared to an increase of 78% seen by those in the open market.

Ronan Lyons, professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin and author of the Daft.ie report, said that the surge in rents that followed the new rent control system has proved short-lived.

“Having risen by 4.4% in the first quarter of 2026 — the largest three-month increase on record — market rents rose by 1.4% between March and June,” he said.

“That is slightly below the 1.6% average increase seen over the last decade. This answers a question posed by the last report: The jump appears to be related to the possibility of one-off rent-resets rather than a new market dynamic.”

Among the most striking developments of the last five years has been the geographic change, he said.

“A two-bedroom apartment in Dublin cost close to three times its Connacht-Ulster equivalent for most of the 2010s, peaking at just over three times in 2018. That ratio has now fallen below 2.

“Rents in the capital are 25% above their pre-pandemic level. But rents elsewhere have risen much faster — by 90% in Connacht-Ulster, 75% in Munster, and 65% in the other cities.”