Average advertised rents rose by 1.6% in the second quarter of this year, according to the latest rental report by Daft.ie - the 18th consecutive quarter of rising rents.
The latest increase combined with those seen in the previous three quarters, in particular in the first three months of 2025, means that market rents are on average 6.9% higher than a year ago.
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.
Report author Ronan Lyons, Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin, said: "The upward march of rents continues, as availability shows little sign of improving. As has been the case for almost 15 years, the solution to a deficit of rental housing is ensuring more rental housing gets built."
According to the report, there were almost 2,300 homes available to rent nationwide on 1 August.
This is down 14% year-on-year and close to half the 2015-2019 average for availability of homes to rent.
With the volume of new supply slowing considerably in Dublin, inflation in the capital - at 6.5% - is now close to the average seen in the rest of the country (7.3%).
Limerick city saw the highest inflation at 14.9%, consistent with highs in recent quarters according to Daft.ie.
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 where it was up 12.5%.
Outside the five major cities, rents rose by an average of 6.2% over the last year.
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"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 Covid-19 pandemic hit," Mr Lyons said.
"As has consistently been the case over the past 15 years, the substantial increases in rents are being driven by extreme scarcity of rental housing, relative to underlying need," he added.
"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," he said.
"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," he added.
Over the weekend Chill Insurance released new research which found that first-time buyers in Dublin now need a salary of €103,500 to qualify for a mortgage under Central Bank mortgage rules.
The analysis compared CSO data on median first-time-buyer home prices with local incomes.
In Dublin it found the median price for a first-time buyer home is €460,000, however the research shows a median income in the county of €47,873, leaving an income shortfall of €55,627.
Wicklow and Kildare also dominate the least affordable list, requiring salaries close to €100,000.
At the other end of the scale, counties such as Roscommon, Longford and Donegal remain the most affordable, although salaries of around €50,000 are still needed to get on the property ladded.
In Roscommon the median price for a first-time-buyer home is €225,000.
This means the salary required is just over €50,000, but the median Roscommon income is just over €40,000 leaving a €10,000 shortfall to buy a first home.
From an economic perspective whether it relates to sales or rental, Mr Lyons believes Ireland suffers from a "shortage of space" and it is not really an "either or" scenario.
"Some of the policy measures have been predicated on 'well, if we do this, then we can't do that', said Mr Lyons.
"What we actually need is more of all types of space, more space for students, more space for people coming here just to visit, more space for first-time buyers who are starting a family, more space for those who are downsizing and after they've retired," he added.
"I worry that while there has been a lot of positive signals from politicians and policy makers over the last year or so, especially around the election around increasing the targets for building homes, the targets still are inadequate, we've a significant housing deficit of about 300,000 homes and setting the targets is an important first step but how do we get the capacity to follow the targets?" he said.
"That's the key second step," he added.
