Average rents in Ireland rose by 115 per cent between 2010 and 2025, according to new figures from Eurostat.
The cumulative increase was more than four times the European Union (EU) average (27.8 per cent).
Eurostat said rents increased in 26 EU countries between the first quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2025, with the highest increases registered in Estonia (220 per cent), Lithuania (184 per cent), Hungary (124 per cent) and Ireland (115 per cent).
Greece was the only country where rent prices decreased (-11 per cent).
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Eurostat also assessed the changes in house prices over the same 15-year period.
Average prices in Ireland were found to have risen by just over 80 per cent compared to an EU average of 57.9 per cent.
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The figures show Irish house prices have been on something of a rollercoaster since the depths of the financial crisis in 2010 when they fell by 12.5 per cent.
That was followed by declines of 17.8 per cent, 14.7 per cent and 0.5 per cent in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
However, they rebounded in 2014, rising by 15.2 per cent and rose every year, barring 2023, since.
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When comparing the first quarter of 2025 with 2010, house prices increased more than rents in 21 of the 26 EU countries for which data are available, Eurostat said.
They more than tripled in Hungary and Estonia, and doubled or more than doubled in nine EU countries: Lithuania, Latvia, Czechia, Portugal, Bulgaria, Austria, Luxembourg, Poland and Slovakia.
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Italy was the only country where house prices decreased, falling 4 per cent.
Eurostat noted that house prices and rents in the EU followed a similar pattern between 2010 and the second quarter of 2011 “but have since evolved differently”.
“While rents have increased steadily, house prices have followed a more variable pattern, showing a staggering increase between Q1 2015 and Q3 2022, followed by a small drop and stabilisation, before increasing again since 2024,” it said.
The latest quarterly rental report from Daft indicated that rents in the Republic rose at a faster rate in the first quarter than at any point over the past 20 years with market or asking price for rents now eclipsing €2,000 for the first time.
Amid a fall-off in supply, particularly in the renal market, the Government here has overhauled the State-wide system of rent pressure zones (RPZs) in bid to entice more investment into the sector.
Under the changes, landlords will be able to reset rents at the going market rate when a tenant leaves but opposition parties have warned the move could lead to a raft of evictions.
The Eurostat data showed that in the first quarter of 2025, house prices across the EU rose by 5.7 per cent on an annual basis, while rents increased by 3.2 per cent.
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2024, house prices increased by 1.4 per cent and rents by 0.9 per cent.
