THE PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL Tenancies Board has launched a national rent index that reveals the actual rents being paid for houses and apartments across the country as opposed to the amount of rent being asked.

The Economic and Social Research Institute has compiled the database based on the PRTB’s own register of over 277,000 tenancies throughout the country.

It will provide real rent details for five different categories of dwellings with a micro level breakdown by county, postcode and townsland and by the number of bedrooms for each dwelling types.

The director of the PRTB, Anne Marie Caulfield, said it would take “the speculation and surmise out of renting”.

Rents rise

The PRTB also found there was an increase in rents nationally but a fall in Dublin rents.

Compared with Q1 2012, there has been a 2 per cent increase in national rents – a 2.3 per cent increase in Dublin rents and a 0.8 per cent increase in rents for outside Dublin. However, rents in Dublin fell in the first quarter of 2013, down by 1.9 per cent, when compared with the final quarter of 2012. Outside Dublin rents grew by 1.7 per cent, having fallen in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The index was officially launched today by the Minister for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan, who welcomed it pointing out that 20 per cent of households now live in the private rented sector.

People can log on free of charge to check rent levels for different locations, and dwelling types.

Read: Revenue “happy” with property tax payments after deadline passes>

More: This map shows you why rent is rising in Dublin more than anywhere else>