The cost of renting in Cork City is up 6.3%.

According to the latest Irish Rental Report published by Daft.ie, in Munster, rents have increased by 8.8% on last year, rocketing by 9% across Cork county.

The average cost of renting a home in Cork is now at €1483, while a double room in Cork City will set you back €569 a month (€512 in the suburbs). The average rent in Cork county was €1,137.

To make matters worse, availability is historically low: “Across the four major cities other than Dublin – Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford – there were just 304 homes for rent on May 1st.” said Ronan Lyons, author of the report.

“While there have been a couple of instances of availability being lower, this has never happened in May, normally a time of greater supply on the market.”

“This brings us back to the ultimate issue in the Irish housing system – a shortage of housing.”

The most expensive place to rent a home in Ireland is in South County Dublin, where residents hand over an average of €2,221 to landlords every month.

“Covid-19 has done many things and wrought changes previously thought unthinkable in many instances.” Mr Lyons continued.

“What it cannot do, however, is change the simple fact that for close to thirty years, Ireland has built too few homes. This is particularly true for homes for smaller households, homes in urban areas and rental homes.”