Laois rents surge in rocketing rental market report from daft.ie

Laois rents have jumped again, rising this time by more than 5%, according to the latest Daft.ie report which shows the cost of renting a home in Laois rising by over 60% since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The latest Quarterly Rental Price Report from the property website shows that market rents were on average 5.5% higher in the second quarter of 2025 than a year previously. The average property listed rent is now €1641, up 63% from the level prevailing when the pandemic hit.

• A one-bedroom apartment has gone up 5.5% in Laois, with the average rent now €1,035.
• A two-bedroom house has also gone up 4.4% with the monthly rent now reaching €1,241.
• A three-bedroom home has gone up to €1,476 to rent - a rise of 5.4%.
• A four-bedroom home will set renters back €1,675 each month - a rise of 2.6%.
• A five-bedroom home will cost €1,715 a month a fall of -9.8%.

The report was published on August 25. On the same day, there were just 23 Properties to rent in Laois on Daft.ie 

The least expensive accommodation listed is a single bedroom studio in Bellingham, Portlaoise, costing €975 per month. The highest rent was being sought for a recently built 3-bed semi-detached home in Kilminchy. A monthly rent of €2,250 is being asked for.

Daft.ie says rental availability in Leinster outside Dublin was down 14% with fewer than 400 homes to rent in Laois and other counties on August 1. This is also half the  2015-2019 average.

The cost of renting a room in Leinster was roughly 6% higher on average in the second quarter of 2025 than a year earlier. MORE BELOW GRAPHIC.

Nationally, market rents rose by an average of 1.6% in the second quarter of 2025, according to the latest Rental Report by Daft.ie, the eighteenth consecutive quarter of rising rents. The average open-market rent nationwide between April and June was €2,055 per month, up from a low of just €765 in 2011 and 51% higher than before the outbreak of Covid-19.

In recent years, rents in Dublin had been rising at a slower pace than elsewhere, reflecting the impact of both covid19 in reshaping location preferences and significant new purpose-built supply coming on stream more recently. However, with the volume of new supply slowing considerably, inflation in the capital - at 6.5% - is now close to the average seen in the rest of the country (7.3%).

There remains significant pressure in the rental markets of Ireland’s other cities. In Galway city, rents were up 8.5% year on year, while in Cork city, they increased by 11.8% in the same period. Inflation was even greater in Waterford city (up 12.5%) and, as has consistently been the case in recent quarters, Limerick city saw the highest inflation, at 14.9%. Outside the five major cities, rents rose by an average of 6.2% over the last year.

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There were almost 2,300 homes available to rent nationwide on August 1st. This is down 14% year-on-year and close to half the 2015-2019 average for availability of homes to rent.

“The upward march of rents continues, as availability shows little sign of improving. As has been the case for almost fifteen years, the solution to a deficit of rental housing is ensuring more rental housing gets built"

Commenting on the report, its author Ronan Lyons, Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin, said:

“The average open-market rent nationwide - at a little over €2,000 a month - is twice the rent seen at the Celtic Tiger peak and 50% higher than the level of rents that prevailed just before the Covi-19 pandemic hit. As has consistently been the case over the past fifteen years, the substantial increases in rents are being driven by extreme scarcity of rental housing, relative to underlying need.

“Since the last report, the government has moved to relax some of the strictest aspects of Ireland’s rent controls. While this is likely to help boost investment in new rental supply, those changes will not take effect until next year. Further, Ireland’s lengthy planning process means that it will be a number of years before any increase in supply is meaningful enough to start addressing the large deficit of rental housing in the country,” she said.

Average market rents, per month, and year-on-year change, 2025 Q2

• Dublin: €2,583, up 6.5%
• Cork city: €2,241, up 11.8%
• Limerick city: €2,422, up 14.9%
• Galway city: €2,295, up 8.5%
• Waterford city: €1,818, up 12.5%
• Rest of the country: €1,670, up 6.2%

The full report is available from www.daft.ie/report