Average Cork city rent over €2,000 per month for first time

The relentless increase is tempered slightly by the fact that prices are rising more slowly in Dublin. However, it is still the 14th consecutive quarter in which rents across Ireland increased.

The average rent for homes in Cork city has passed €2,000 per month for the first time, with tenants across the country facing ever-rising accommodation costs.

The latest quarterly report from property website daft.ie reveals tenants in Cork city are paying €2,005 per month on average — up 11.9% on the same figure from 12 months previously.

In Cork county, the average payments for a property are up 8.7% to €1,533 per month.

The relentless increase is tempered slightly by the fact that prices are rising more slowly in Dublin. However, it is still the 14th consecutive quarter in which rents across Ireland increased.

Rents rose by an average of 2% nationwide in the three-month period to June.

It is the 45th time in 48 quarters over the past 12 years that rents have increased — a fact economist Ronan Lyons blames firmly on the lack of housing supply.

Responding to the latest report, Mr Lyons noted that the chronic lack of supply in the Irish rental market is particularly notable outside Dublin — with most of the new housing stock in the past two years confined to the capital and its surrounding environs.

Just 900 homes were available to rent outside Dublin at the start of August. Across Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford cities combined, there were just 150 properties available to rent at the start of this month.

“Supply is the single most important determinant of rental level,” Mr Lyons said.

When supply is tight, rents are pulled up.

“We can see this in the path of rents in Dublin compared to the other cities over the last two years.”

The overall average monthly cost to rent a property across Ireland was €1,922, up 7.3% year-on-year and a staggering 41% higher than before the outbreak of covid-19, according to the daft.ie report.

Across the country

While Cork rentals set new records during that period, the most egregious performer across the country in terms of rent inflation was Limerick city with rents now averaging €2,107 — up an eye-watering 21.2% in one year.

In Dublin — where the rise in prices had finally started to cool somewhat over the past 18 months due to the onset of some fresh housing supply — rents were up 3.5% over the 12 months to some €2,427 on average, per property.

Galway city was the second-most expensive of the urban centres, with rents averaging €2,114 per month — an increase of 13.3%.

Mr Lyons said it “remains incumbent on policymakers to first develop a thorough understanding of rental supply dynamics, and second devise detailed plans on dramatically increasing rental supply — in all major rental markets — over the coming years”.

“Ideally, more than a decade into a rental housing shortage, we would be talking about the gradual spread of the solution rather than a return to the core problem,” he added.

“Without new rental supply, it is likely that future pressure on rents will be upward — further straining affordability for those on regular incomes.”