Laois is one of the most expensive counties in Ireland to rent a home

Rents in Laois have continued to rise, soaring by 7% in a year to well over €1,000.

The standardised average rent for new tenancies charged in Laois is now at €1,088, putting the county in 12th position in the republic's counties.

Rents rose by 7% in Laois up from an average of €1,016 12 months ago, in new figures released by the Residential Tenancies Board.

It is just under the average rates rise outside Dublin of 7.3%.

The dearest area in Laois for rents is the Portlaoise Municipal District at an average of €1,092 a month.

The Graiguecullen Portarlington MD stands at €1,065 while a figure for the Mountmellick Borris-in-Ossory MD was not given due to the low quantity of data gathered. 

The two Laois MDs are now Rent Pressure Zones, meaning they are areas where rents are highest and rising, and where households have the greatest difficulty finding affordable accommodation. Rents cannot be increased by more than 2% a year, with some exemptions.

See map below by the RTB.

Laois is one of 16 counties that now have standardised average rents in new tenancies above €1,000 per month in Q4 2022: Carlow, Clare, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Louth, Meath, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, and Wicklow.

Laois continues to have a shortage of properties available to rent, particularly in Portlaoise where demand is highest.

At time of writing, just seven properties are advertised on Daft.ie in Laois. They range from a luxury house in Emo for €3,500 a month, down to the cheapest which is a one bedroom furnished studio in Ballacolla for €880 a month including "bills and bedding". 

The only Portlaoise accommodation available is one four bedroom house for €1,850 a month.

Ambitious Laois housing plan at historic Portlaoise school

Top in Ireland for rents is unsurprisingly Dublin at a scalding €2,063 on average a month charged to new renters.

It is followed by commuter counties Kildare, Wicklow and Meath, then Galway, Cork, Louth, Limerick, Kilkenny, Waterford, Carlow and Laois.

The cheapest county for rent in Ireland is Leitrim now at an average of €800 a month.

The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) published the figures in its Q4 2022 Rent Index report for the period of October to December 2022.

The RTB is the state agency with responsibility for the collection and analysis of data on the residential rental sector.  The RTB Rent Index Report, based on independent analysis conducted by the ESRI, provides authoritative data on rent levels and movements in rents for new tenancies in the private rental sector. The results are for new tenancies only.