Daft.ie have released their report for the second quarter of 2026

ACCORDING to the latest figures published by housing agency Daft.ie, market rent rose by 1.4 per cent nationwide between March and June.

In Laois, market rents in the second quarter of 2026 were on average 9.4% higher than a year ago, with the typical open-market rent of a three-bedroom house in the county being €1,816.

The new figures mark a pronounced drop from the 4.4 increase that struck the market in the first quarter of the year, in the wake of the governments’ implementation of the new rental law regime, and is also slightly below the average quarterly rise in rents seen throughout the last decade.

The following are some of the topline figures from the report:

The rent cost for an average two-bedroom apartment nationwide is now €2,204 per month.

The report shows that market rents in the second quarter were 13% higher year-on-year in Galway city, 12% higher in Cork, up 11% in Limerick, meanwhile 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 1st. This is an increase 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%.

Commenting on the new-look report, its author Ronan Lyons, Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin said:

“Taking a step back, the latest report highlights an important shift in the market. The additional cost of renting in Dublin, relative to the rest of the country, has fallen to its lowest level on record. This has happened even as rents in Dublin have continued to rise, with rents in the city one quarter above their pre-Covid level. Rents elsewhere have risen far faster, however: by 90% in Connacht-Ulster and 75% in Munster in six years. Rental scarcity is a national problem, and measures to bring forward new market rental supply need to be capable of working outside Dublin.” Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme