Nationally, the cost of renting has gone up again, but at a slightly slower pace than previously.
Rental costs for a new tenant hit €1,680 across the country in the last four months of last year, the State’s Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) said.
This is a rise of €89 a month compared with the same period last year. It is a rise of 5.5pc, which is down from the 6.2pc rise recorded in the previous quarter of last year.
Dublin city has the highest new rental rates €2,120 a month.
Existing tenants have seen a rise of 4.6pc in the last year in the cost of accommodation.
They are now paying an average of €1,440, or €63 a month more than last year.
The rise in the cost for existing rents is despite a cap on rent rises in most of the country.
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However, the RTB said almost a third of existing tenancies were new agreements. Landlords are allowed to hike the rents on new deals.
Rent pressure zone (RPZ) rules also do not apply to new builds and properties not rented for two years.
The RTB expressed concern about rents in Galway city and county after eight consecutive quarters of high growth.
Rents for new tenants in Galway city are now €1,730 a month. That is higher than in Cork.
It is understood that a number of landlords in Galway country and city are breaching the rules that limit rent increases.
Executives from the RTB are to engage directly with renters, landlords and other rental sector stakeholders in the county next month to probe the trend.
It said it will also “host a forum to address rental law compliance” in the area.
Galway addresses feature in eight of 36 of sanctions published against landlords. The total value of the 36 sanctions comes to €102,500.
Both Galway county and city are designated as rent pressure zones, with around 9,000 landlords between them.
Director of the RTB, Rosemary Steen, said: “The new rent index data has flagged unusual patterns of rental inflation in Galway that we are engaging directly with stakeholders in the county to address.”
She said the RTB’s compliance and enforcement team continues to pursue high-risk offenders through in-depth investigations that yielded €102,490 in sanctions just published on its website.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said the latest RTB report is deeply concerning for renters.
“Rents for new and existing renters continues to surge upwards while evictions notices have also surged, breaking the clear downward trajectory seen in 2024.
“This comes at a time when Government is slashing funding for vital homeless prevention schemes like tenant-in-situ while considering changes to rent pressurezZones that would allow landlords to back rent up even further.”
He called on the Government to pay heed to latest Residential Tenancies Board report, “reverse the cuts to tenant-in-situ and ensure that they do nothing to RPZs that leave tenants paying even greater rents that they simply cannot afford”.
Most of the country falls within rent pressure zones. This means rent increases are capped.
Rents in a RPZ cannot be increased by more than 2pc a year or by the increase in the rate of inflation, whichever is the lower.
This restriction applies to new and existing tenancies in RPZs (unless an exemption applies).
Castlebar in Co Mayo and Tullow, Co Carlow, have just being designated as RPZs.
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