Unaffordable: Laois rent rises 10% each year, up 56% from pre-Covid years

According to The Daft.ie Rental Price Report for Q3 of 2024, rental prices in Laois have risen 10% each year, and are up 56% from pre-Covid years.

The recently published report reveals that the average rent in Laois is now €1,568, which is rising by 0.7% every three months.

There were 430 homes available to rent in Leinster, outside Dublin, on November 1st, down 9% on the same date a year
previously - and about half the 2015-2019 average of just over 850.

Last August, it was revealed that Laois recorded the highest annual increase in rent in Ireland outside of Dublin in the past year. 

Pic: Rental prices nationally, the Daft.ie Rental Price Report for Q3 of 2024.

For a one bed apartment in Laois, the average mortgage payment per month is €404, or €567 for a mortgage +2%.

In comparison, average rent per month for a one bed apartment is €985.

The average mortgage payment for a two bed house in Laois is €584, (M+2% €733), while renting costs €1,178 per month.

For a three bed house, monthly mortgage payments come in at €779 (M+2% €978), while renting is €1,396 per month.

A four bed house has an average mortgage of €1,503 (M+2% €1,888), and €1,605 rent per month.

A five bed house in Laois has an average mortgage of €1,577 (M+2% €1,980) compared to €1,983 in rent a month.

Pic: Rental insights for Leinster, The Daft.ie Rental Price Report for Q3 of 2024.

"In Kilkenny, rents were up 17% year-on-year, in Laois by even more," said Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor in Economics Trinity College Dublin.

"Similar rates of inflation were seen in Cavan, Roscommon and Longford. Indeed, only five of the 29 rental markets tracked in the Report had rates of inflation below 10% at the start of the year – while only one market in the capital (Dublin 20) had a rate above 10%," he said.

"Meanwhile, in the rest of the country, inflation is easing. The ‘Ex-Dublin’ rate has fallen from 12.3% at the start of the year to 8.9% in this Q3 report. And the quarter-on-quarter increase outside the capital, at 1.4% in the third quarter, is the joint-lowest in this cycle of the market, with now 17 consecutive quarterly increases," he said.

"In other words, the ‘Dublin versus Elsewhere’ difference in inflation has fallen from almost ten percentage points to less than four since the start of the year," Dr Lyons said.

The goal of the Daft Report is to use this information to help all actors in the property market make informed decisions about buying and selling. 

See the full report here.