By Brendan Carroll

Average rents in Galway City have soared past the €2,000 a month barrier for the first time, new figures have revealed.

The Daft.ie Rental Price Report for the second quarter of this year shows the average monthly cost of renting a place to live in the city hit €2,114 – the most expensive in the country outside of Dublin.

That represents a substantial hike of 13.3% on rental prices for the same period last year, one of the biggest jumps of any local authority area in the country.

In money terms, the increase means that people are paying just short of €250 a month more than they were this time last year … and in excess of €760 above what they were paying pre-Covid.

Galway’s new average places city rents dearer than in Limerick City (€2,107), Cork City (€2,005), Waterford City ((€1,616) and all other areas outside of the capital, where average monthly prices ranged from €2,244 in the North County area to €2,656 in the South County area.

In the rest of County Galway, average monthly rents came to €1,581, an increase of 9.9% on the figures for 2023.

To rent a three-bedroom house in Galway City now costs €1,828 a month on average while other rental prices are €2,357 for a four-bed house, €2,430 for a five-bed, €1,551 for a two-bed apartment and €1,279 for a one-bedroom apartment.

This year saw a huge jump in the cost of renting a room with a double bed in the city – a staggering increase of almost 40% year-on-year.

In the city centre, this will set you back by €757 a month on average (up 39.2%), while in Galway City suburbs the average is €664 a month (up 37.2%).

Single bedroom rentals are not much cheaper – €635 in the city centre area and €591 in the suburbs – though the increase on last year was much less than for a double, at 4.4% and 5.7% respectively.

The Daft.ie report also highlights the difference in cost between buying a property and paying a mortgage, as against renting, based on current property prices.

In Galway City, the biggest difference is in smaller properties – a one-bedroomed apartment would cost well less than half what people have to pay out in monthly rents — €530 in mortgage repayments, compared with €1,279 in rent.

Mortgage repayments on a two-bed house would also cost less than half what is being charged, at €746 a month, while a three-bedroom house would be €700-plus cheaper (€1,108 at current mortgage rates).

A four-bed house would cost more than €500 less (€1,837), while the difference in mortgage repayments and rents for a five-bed house is close to €140, at €2,292 a month.

But regardless of the cost, one of the biggest problems facing people needing a place to live is the difficulty in actually finding a property available to rent, or indeed to buy.

In the whole of the Connacht-Ulster region, there were just 240 homes listed for rent at the start of this month, down 6% on the same date a year ago and less than one third of the 2015-2019 average of almost 750 homes.

Across Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford cities combined, there were just 150 homes available to rent at the start of August.

“Where availability goes, affordability follows: supply is the single most important determinant of rental level. When supply is tight, rents are pulled up,” said Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin.