Rural Ireland seeing rent increases of up to 20%, new figures show

More than half of areas in Ireland not designated as rent pressure zones saw their rents for new tenancies increase by more than 8% between 2022 and 2024, with counties Leitrim, Donegal, and Longford seeing enormous increases of 18.3%, 18.7%, and 19.3% respectively.

The research, conducted by the RTB together with the Economic and Social Research Institute and launched at an event to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of the board, shows rents where a tenant has changed are far more likely to exceed rent pressure zone rules than where a tenant remains unchanged.

Between 2022 and 2024, rents were hiked by more than 8% in 10% of Dublin properties, and 20% of rentals in rent pressure zones outside the capital, the property-level analysis states.

Such a level of detail in rental analysis is only now available for the first time, enabled by the RTB beginning to register tenancies on an annual basis from 2021 onwards and thereafter compare rent levels for each property on a year-on-year basis.

Under RPZ legislation, rents cannot be raised by more than 2% a year in a designated zone, unless the property is exempt or the landlord has performed a "significant refurbishment" of the residence. Some 82% of the more than 182,000 rental properties considered by the analysis are in rent pressure zones.

While the RTB noted non-compliance with rent pressure zone rules cannot be definitively established from the data, and that data itself is entirely dependent on information delivered by the landlords themselves, the “findings would suggest it [non compliance] is happening more often” in areas outside Dublin, according to Dr Rachel Slaymaker, the report’s author.

All told, the properties tracked as part of the analysis showed an average annual rate of increase of 2%, with nearly two thirds of tenancies showing no rental increase.

Rental hikes where tenants left a rental in pressure zones outside Dublin averaged 5.2% in the first three months of 2024, down from 6.2% one year previously but still well in excess of the 2% limit.

In Dublin, the most established rent pressure zone in the country, those figures were 2.8% down from 3.1%.

Outside the rent pressure zones, rents increased across the country by an average of 14% between January and March 2024 when a tenancy changed hands.

Meanwhile, the RTB’s quarterly rental register shows rents are up once more, albeit at a slower pace, with the average price increasing 4.7% year on year to €1,644 in the second quarter of 2024, down from 8.3% in the first quarter.

The rate of increase for sitting tenancies was recorded at a higher rate than that of new rentals for the first time, though new tenancies remain significantly more expensive, the RTB said.

Separately, the board said the number of landlords in the market increased by 5.7% annually, up by roughly 5,600 to 104,327 across the year, suggesting the theme of landlords "fleeing the market" is not currently a verifiable trend.

When queried by a representative of the Irish Property Owners Association as to the accuracy of those figures, director of the RTB Rosemary Steen replied “the data is the data”.

“We’re not saying that some landlords are not leaving the market, we are saying that this is the overall number,” she added.

The rate of individual landlords owning extensive rental portfolios has also ramped up significantly, the RTB said, with 115 landlords declaring to own more than 100 tenancies as at the end of September 2024, compared with just 89 landlords a year previously.