Average monthly rent exceeds €2,000 for the first time

Michael Bolton

The average open-market rent nationwide in the first quarter of 2025 was €2,053 per month, according to the Daft.ie quarterly rental report.

This is up from a low of just €765 in 2011 and 48 per cent higher than before the outbreak of COVID-19.

Rents in the first quarter of 2025 increased by 3.4 per cent, one of the largest three-month increases in the last 20 years.

There was a nationwide increase in the last year of 7.3 per cent, with an increase of 5.7 per cent since late 2024.

Rents rose by 5.8 per cent in Dublin and by 8.6 per cent elsewhere, the smallest gap in inflation rates in two years.

The county with the largest year-on-year increase was Limerick, with rents up by over 20 per cent.

Cork saw an increase of 13.6 per cent, with rents up in Galway by 12.6 per cent in the last year.

The average rent in Cork City is €2,213, while a renter in Galway city can expect to pay €2,304.

Waterford City saw a jump of 9.9 per cent.

Rents in Leinster and Connacht-Ulster were up just over 5% year-on-year, while rents in Munster were 11.5% higher.

There were just over 2,300 homes available to rent nationwide on May 1st, down 14 per cent in the last year.

This is the third-lowest total for May in 20 years.

Commenting on the report, its author Ronan Lyons, Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin, said:“The average open-market rent nationwide exceeds €2,000 a month for the first time, up from below €1,400 a month just five years ago. The sustained increases in rents in the open market are being driven by an acute and worsening shortage of rental housing.

Unfortunately, changes made to rent controls in 2021 dramatically reduced the ability of Ireland’s rental sector to attract the capital needed for new supply, the ultimate remedy for the shortage.

"The opportunity exists for the government to reform those controls and facilitate the emergence of a new pipeline of rental homes. Nonetheless, further supports will be needed to encourage new rental supply outside of the Greater Dublin Area.”