REVEALED: The counties where it’s most and least expensive to rent as prices skyrocket (again)

Rents in Dublin are now almost €380 a month higher than the previous peak at the height of the Celtic Tiger.

The cost of renting in Ireland rose by an average of just over 10% by the end of December 2017, the seventh quarter in a row that a new all-time high has been set, according to the latest rental price report by Daft.ie. The average monthly rent nationwide during the final quarter of 2017 was €1,227, while in Dublin, rents are now 26%, or almost €380 a month (€4,500 a year), higher than their previous peak in 2008. As far as Ireland’s other major cities are concerned, rents in Galway and Waterford rose by a little over 12% during the year, rents in Limerick rose by 14.8% and in Cork, the increase in rents was 7.7%. Outside the five main cities, meanwhile, rents rose by 9.8%. Dublin was obviously the most expensive county for rental prices (you can see the average cost of rent for the respective areas of the capital below), followed by Wicklow (€1,256 per month), Kildare (€1,212 per month) and Meath (€1,171 per month). At the other end of the scale, meanwhile, Leitrim was the least expensive county (€542 per month), followed by Donegal (€599 per month), Longford (€605 per month) and Roscommon (€625 per month). The figures are based on asking rents for properties advertised to let on Daft.ie and you can see the average price of rent in your county along with a price comparison with the 2016 figure on the map below. The infographic below, meanwhile, reveals a comparison between the monthly cost of rent and the monthly cost of a mortgage in various parts of the country; the details for each individual county are included in the report here. The report also reveals that there were 3,143 properties available to rent nationwide on 1 February, the lowest number ever recorded for this time of year since the series started in 2006 and a 15% decrease on the same date a year previously. In Dublin, for example, there were fewer than 1,350 homes available to rent, compared to almost 6,700 on the same date in 2009. Commenting on the report, Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity College Dublin and author of the Daft Report, said: “2017 marks the fourth consecutive year of double-digit gains in rents nationwide. The underlying pressure for rising rents remains due to a chronic shortage of available rental accommodation, at a time of strong demand. In some segments in Dublin, rents have now doubled since 2010. “Rents have been rising in the capital twice as long as they fell – and indeed twice as long as the last market upswing. With at least 40,000 new homes a year needed to meet underlying demand, but with below 20,000 homes built in 2017, it remains the priority for policymakers to bring construction costs down in line with affordable levels.”