NEW TENANTS WERE paying on average €326 more per month than sitting tenants earlier this year, according to new data from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).

The figures are before the full impact of the government’s sweeping reforms to the private rental sector had taken effect, as they cover January to March of this year.

Rising rents were most dramatic in the cities of Limerick (20.9%), Cork (16.3%) and Galway (13.3%), with monthly rents in the latter city now above €2,000.

Nationally, the average rent for new tenancies increased to €1,839 per month in the first quarter of 2026, a 9.1% jump year-on-year, whereas existing tenancies jumped 4.2% to monthly payments worth €1,513.

The new rent rules introduced in March have dropped the 2% cap on how much landlords can charge new tenants after their property becomes empty.

Instead, the landlord can charge the market rate – this can work out at hundreds more euro per month in many cases.

It’s expected that the contrast between what new and existing tenants are paying in rent may have widened further in the months after this spring, as tenants who were hit with eviction notices in that period depart their properties.

However, Thursday’s figures from the RTB show that eviction notices are down 42.9% for April to June, when compared to the previous quarter.

The RTB had received a record-high 7,062 notices of termination in the first three months of 2026, 51% higher compared to the same period a year before, but this number fell back to 4,031.

RTB Director Rosemary Steen said that the fall in eviction notices shows that the rental sector “continues to stabilise and adjust” following the introduction of the major rental law reforms earlier this year.

Steen said that the “sharp decline” in Q2 of this year suggested that the “unusually high volumes seen in Q1 2026 were temporary rather than indicative of a sustained trend” in Ireland’s rental sector.

The RTB chief added that the watchdog would continue to monitor the emerging trends, pointing to new powers to fine landlords if they have breached certain rent rules from 14 September.

Since 1 March, all landlords must provide the RTB and their tenant with a ‘rent setting notice’ that explains how rent was set in line with national rent control rules.

“If a landlord fails to provide a rent-setting notice, the RTB will identify this, and they will now face a fixed payment notice of €200 for each breach of rent rules,” Steen said.

She added this will give the RTB an important new way to “drive compliance” with the government’s rent-setting rules.

Shift towards larger landlords

The Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA) warned that the latest figures from the RTB show Ireland’s private rental market is “continuing to shift towards larger landlords and institutional investors”, while the supply of homes provided by smaller landlords continues to decline.

The RTB’s quarterly update for Q2 2026 shows that landlords with four or more tenancies now provide 56% of all private tenancies. However, this group accounts for 12% of private landlords.

The share of tenancies provided by landlords with 100 or more tenancies has increased for the 13th consecutive quarter, reaching 15.6%, its highest level since the current RTB series began.

“The fact that landlords with four or more properties now provide more than half of all private rental tenancies, despite representing less than 12% of landlords, tells us something important about where the market is heading,” chair of the IPOA Mary Conway said on Thursday afternoon.

Housing Minister James Browne’s reforms were introduced as a way of enticing more private sector investment from institutional firms into the Irish property sector.

Under these rules, renters are provided with a six-year minimum contract when they enter into a new tenancy, with strict limits on rent resets.

‘Astronomical rent increases’

Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin called for an immediate ban on rent increases and evictions in response to the latest RTB quarterly report.

The Dublin Midwest TD said that while the number of eviction notices is down on the first quarter of this year, “it is still a significant number of people” who now have to “start looking for a new home in a market of rising rents and stagnating supply”.

Ó Broin further claimed that the government’s reforms have yet to show real signs of supply improving in the market, with the RTB figures recording that registered private tenancies had increased by 1.5% year-on-year, but were largely static quarter-on-quarter.

“A year after the Government announced changes to rent pressure zones, apartment design standards and massive VAT breaks for apartment developers, there is no sign that private rental supply is increasing. It has simply flat-lined,” Ó Broin said.

Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne called the rent increases found in the report “absolutely astronomical”, adding that many would struggle to afford them.

Hearne called the rapidly rising rents in many cities outside of Dublin a “national scandal”, and warned that it could get worse for renters due to the government’s focus on the market rate for new tenancies.

“There’s nothing stopping this rate from rising ad-infinitum,” Hearne said, adding that major landlords with multiple properties in a given area could effectively raise the rate themselves.