RENTAL prices in Limerick City are now over 19 per cent higher than they were this time last year, latest figures have shown.
According to the latest Daft.ie Irish Rental Report, the average rent in the city is now €2,221 per month, up 19.2 per cent year on year.
This is the biggest yearly increase in the whole of Ireland, with average rental prices in the city up 80 per cent from pre-Covid times.
In County Limerick, rents also increased year-on-year, with the average monthly rent in the county now standing at €1,587.
This represents an increase of 8.4 per cent on this time last year.
The price of renting a room in Limerick City was also up, with the average price of a single room increasing 15 per cent on the same time last year, to €531 per month.
The price of a double room in the city increased by 10 per cent to €707 per month.
Renting a single room in Limerick’s suburbs was the only sector that saw average prices fall year-on-year, with the prices dropping by 3.6 per cent to €561 per month.
However, the price of a double room in the city suburbs increased by 4.1 per cent to €661.
The author of the report and associate professor in economics at Trinity College Dublin, Professor Ronan Lyons, said that rental inflation in Limerick was particularly high.
“By early 2024, rental inflation in Galway city was over 15 per cent and in Limerick city, it topped 21 per cent,” Prof Lyons said.
“Nowhere in the country had a higher rate of inflation. So this is definitely not a ‘flee the cities post-Covid’ story,” he added.
Nationally overall, average rental prices had risen by 7.2 per cent, with rental inflation slowing in Dublin.
Rental prices across Dublin increased by 3.5 per cent in the year to June.
According to the report, there were just 2,400 homes available to rent across Ireland as of November 1, down 14 per cent on the same time last year, and bringing an end to 18 months of improving availability.
