RENTS in Limerick saw the biggest increase in all of Ireland in the last quarter of 2023, according to the newest report published by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).
The average price for new tenancies in Limerick City jumped by 22 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, the biggest jump anywhere in the country, according to the RTB’s Rent Index for Q4 2023.
The report also showed that the number of newly-registered tenancies in Limerick was down 48.2 per cent in the same period.
A new tenancy would now cost renters in Limerick City an average of €1,514 per month, according to the index.
The news wasn’t much better for existing tenants in Limerick, with the city having the second highest price growth rate in existing tenancies, rising 5.5 per cent, with the average rent for an existing tenancy now standing at €1,121.
Limerick also saw the biggest gap in prices between new and existing tenancies, with new tenancies costing 35 per cent more than an existing tenancy.
In county Limerick the average price for a new tenancy was €1,412, an increase of 25 per cent.
An existing tenancy in the county was coming in at €1,052, up 4.6 per cent year-on-year.
The Local Electoral Area (LEA) in Limerick that saw the highest new rental price was Limerick City East, with the average price of a new rental in the area costing €1,679 per month. City West was close behind with a new tenancy costing an average of €1,502.
The average price for a new tenancy in City North was €1,453, while a new tenancy in the Newcastle West LEA would cost an average of €903 per month.
The Adare-Rathkeale and Cappamore-Kilmallock LEAs registered too few new tenancies in quarter four to be published, the report stated.
The report’s authors said that “year-on-year growth in rental prices for new tenancies remained high in Q4 2023 (9.1 per cent) but did see a slight moderation relative to the previous two quarters”.
Nationally, “the numbers of new tenancy registrations for 2023 as a whole were 21 per cent lower than in 2022, with year-on-year falls greatest from Q2 2023 onwards, coinciding with the jump observed in new tenancy rental inflation,” the report stated.
