{"id":670517,"date":"2026-09-03T15:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/670517\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T15:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:02:16","slug":"sharp-rise-in-rents-charged-to-new-tenants-as-reforms-took-effect-rtb-reports-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/670517\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharp rise in rents charged to new tenants as reforms took effect, RTB reports \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Average rents<\/a> for new tenancies rose sharply earlier this year to \u20ac1,839 per month as an overhaul of rent rules took effect, a report has found.<\/p>\n

Analysis of Residential Tenancies Board<\/a> data found a 9.1 per cent year-on-year rise for new residential lettings between January and March of this year.<\/p>\n

For existing tenancies, the year-on-year rate of inflation was 4.2 per cent in the first quarter, bringing the average monthly rent up to \u20ac1,513.<\/p>\n

Rachel Slaymaker, of the Economic and Social Research Institute<\/a>, said there was a \u201cslight tip up\u201d in inflation in January and February before a \u201cspike\u201d in March. Annual rent inflation for new tenancies in the last quarter of 2025 was 5.4 per cent, she said.<\/p>\n

She said the \u201cinitial jump\u201d following rent system changes on March 1st is \u201cnot a surprise\u201d. However, she said it was a \u201clittle early\u201d to predict whether this represented an early adjustment or signals a long-term trend.<\/p>\n

Under the reforms,<\/a> landlords were permitted to reset rents to market rates between tenancies. The reforms also introduced six-year-minimum duration tenancies, during which a 2 per cent cap on annual rent rises would be in force. This replaced a similar cap imposed under the rent pressure zone system but for which there was no opportunity to reset to market rates. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Properties to rent in Dublin fell by 18% despite new rules, report findsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin acknowledged the changes to the rental market had affected tenants.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, for the long-term sustainability of the market, change had to occur, and that was recommended by the Housing Commission that we would change the existing system, which was uncertain and didn\u2019t give certainty for investment into the future,\u201d he told reporters in Dublin. <\/p>\n

Supply was the fundamental challenge to the cost of housing, said Martin, for renting and purchasing. He said the Government was \u201cmaking progress on the supply side\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make more progress this year, and I think we will in terms of housing and department units constructed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s housing spokesman Eoin \u00d3 Broin called for an \u201cimmediate\u201d ban on rent increases and evictions, claiming Government policy is \u201cmaking the housing crisis worse\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rory Hearne, housing spokesman for the Social Democrats, said the rental changes are \u201ccausing armageddon in the rental market\u201d and must be reversed to \u201cavoid even further fallout\u201d. <\/p>\n

Slaymaker, whose research was part of an RTB presentation of new rental data, said it was \u201cperhaps not a surprise\u201d to see larger inflation in cities, which have been subject to rent price controls under the pressure zone system for some time. <\/p>\n

Rents for new tenancies in Limerick city rose by 20.9 per cent year-on-year, while new tenants in Cork city saw a 16.3 per cent increase. New tenancy rent inflation stood at 13.3 per cent in Galway city, 10.7 per cent in Waterford city and 8.3 per cent in Dublin. <\/p>\n

Slaymaker said the rent price inflation follows seven quarters of relative stability. She said this latest data reveals a widening gap in the rents charged in existing and new tenancies. <\/p>\n

RTB director Rosemary Steen said it is a \u201cconcern\u201d that nine counties saw average rents for new tenancies increase by more than 10 per cent year-on-year. <\/p>\n

However, in a sign that the rental market \u201ccontinues to stablise and adjust\u201d, she noted eviction notices fell significantly in the second quarter of this year after a record number of people were asked to leave their rental homes ahead of the reforms.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Budget 2027 must turn housing momentum into lasting supplyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The RTB received just over 4,031 termination notices from April to June, a sharp drop on the 7,062 filed between January and March. <\/p>\n

Steen said the drop suggests the \u201cunusually high\u201d volumes seen earlier this year were \u201ctemporary rather than indicative of a sustained trend\u201d.<\/p>\n

The number of eviction notices had been increasing from late last year ahead of the March 1st rent system changes.<\/p>\n

The 4,000 notices received in the second quarter of this year is back in line with averages received in most quarters up until mid-2025. There were more than 5,000 issued in each of the two quarters of the second half of last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Average rents for new tenancies rose sharply earlier this year to \u20ac1,839 per month as an overhaul of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,38419,13,14,6,8752,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,4097,41275,7,8],"class_list":["post-670517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-esri","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-renting","tag-residential-tenancies-board-prtb","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117207718137922606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}