Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Dublin
SUMMARY
Yes, rental property is still worth it in Dublin, but mainly when the purchase produces a strong yield from day one. A small apartment around 7% to 8% gross can still work well; a 5% to 6% property bought with heavy leverage usually does not.
Dublin's rental problem is still a landlord's advantage. New-tenancy rents are rising quickly, tenant demand remains intense, and recent housing completions are nowhere near strong enough to make a broad rental glut the obvious next scenario.
The problem has shifted from finding tenants to buying at the right price. Dublin residential prices are still rising, apartments have recently appreciated faster than houses, and investors are competing hardest for the smaller units that usually offer the best rental economics.
Gross yield is much more useful than headline rent. A €2,500 monthly rent sounds exceptional until it sits against a €395,000 purchase price, a mortgage near 5%, service charges, repairs, insurance, Local Property Tax and income tax.
Leverage creates the sharpest dividing line between good and mediocre investments. The same two-bedroom apartment can look like a roughly 6% pre-tax income asset to a cash buyer and leave a highly leveraged owner with only a few thousand euros of annual cash after normal costs.
Smaller apartments currently have a structural advantage. One- and two-bedroom units can still reach gross yields around 7% to 8%, while larger family properties often require dramatically more capital without producing proportionally more rent.
Fast market rent growth does not mean an existing landlord can capture that growth every year. Once a tenancy is running, increases are generally capped at CPI inflation or 2%, whichever is lower, so the starting rent matters a lot more than the latest asking-rent headline.
The 2026 rental reforms are not entirely negative for landlords. Market-rent resets have become easier after certain qualifying tenancy endings, particularly for under-rented properties, but the longer tenancy framework means investors need to think about their eventual exit before they buy.
Capital appreciation can make leveraged returns look spectacular, but relying on it would be a weak investment thesis at today's prices. Dublin is already well above its previous 2007 nominal peak, so future price growth should be treated as upside rather than the thing rescuing poor rental cash flow.
The best Dublin buy-to-let today is therefore fairly specific: a sound one- or two-bedroom apartment, manageable service charges, no major remediation issue, strong tenant demand, and a gross yield of at least around 7%. Dublin remains attractive, but the market no longer forgives an expensive purchase with average rent.
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Are Dublin rents still rising fast enough to make buy-to-let attractive?
Yes. Dublin rents are still rising strongly today, and the latest official data actually show rental growth speeding up again.
The latest RTB/ESRI Rent Index found that the standardised rent on new tenancies across Ireland reached €1,839 a month in Q1 2026, up 9.1% from a year earlier. The annual increase had been only 5.4% in the previous quarter. Existing-tenancy rents rose much more slowly, by 4.2% to €1,513.
Dublin sits well above the national average. Current asking-rent data put a typical Dublin two-bedroom apartment around €2,500 to €2,650 a month, depending on the dataset and area.
The gap between new and existing rents is especially important for investors. A property coming onto the market today can command a much higher rent than many long-standing tenancies, while annual increases during most tenancies are now capped at CPI inflation or 2%, whichever is lower.
Rental income is therefore still moving in the right direction. The catch is simple: once a tenant is in place, a landlord cannot assume their own rent will keep pace with the open market.
Is it still easy to find tenants for a Dublin rental?
Yes. Finding a tenant in Dublin is currently one of the easiest parts of the investment.
Rental demand remains intense across well-connected parts of the capital, especially around employment centres, universities and major transport routes. High asking rents have not produced a meaningful collapse in demand, while the gap between rents on new and existing tenancies shows how much tenants are paying when they have to enter the market today.
Supply is improving in some parts of Dublin, but it still looks too limited to change that picture quickly. The CSO recorded 3,180 new homes completed across Dublin in Q2 2026, 16.4% fewer than a year earlier.
Apartments made up 2,006 of those completions. Dublin therefore accounted for more than three quarters of all apartments completed in Ireland during the quarter.
That is a lot of apartment construction, but there is no sign yet of a citywide rental glut. For a normal one- or two-bedroom apartment in a decent Dublin location, we would worry much more about paying too much than about failing to find a tenant.
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New apartments are priced against what an institution will pay for a whole block rather than what one buyer should. Where asking prices sit furthest from what places actually earn and resell for.
Are Dublin property prices getting too expensive for landlords?
Yes, in many areas. Dublin prices are still rising, and apartments are currently appreciating faster than houses.
The latest CSO Residential Property Price Index showed Dublin prices up 4.6% year on year. Houses rose 3.9%, while apartments increased 7.0%.
Apartments are also the most obvious buy-to-let product for individual investors. Landlords looking for better yields are therefore chasing the same part of the market that has recently been rising fastest.
The median Dublin residential purchase price over the preceding 12 months reached €500,000. Dublin City was cheaper at €480,000, while Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown reached €682,334. At Eircode level, Blackrock was above €850,000, while Dublin 17 was around €337,000.
Dublin prices are also about 10.9% above their previous 2007 peak and roughly 175% above the 2012 low.
So this is an expensive market that has already gone through a huge recovery. Rental demand may still be excellent, but the entry price leaves very little room for mediocre yields or expensive financing.
What rental yield can you actually get in Dublin now?
A good Dublin apartment can still produce roughly 7% to 8% gross today, while larger homes often fall closer to 5% to 7%.
That spread between smaller and larger properties is one of the clearest findings in the current market.
A representative one-bedroom bought for around €300,000 and rented for €2,000 a month produces an 8.0% gross yield. A €395,000 two-bedroom at €2,500 a month comes out around 7.6%.
A €525,000 three-bedroom renting for €3,000 falls to about 6.9%, while a €975,000 larger home renting at €4,500 produces only about 5.5%.
The bigger property earns more rent in euros, but the extra rent does not keep pace with the extra purchase price.
These figures are gross. Service charges, insurance, repairs, management, Local Property Tax and occasional vacancy still have to come out of them. For many apartments, those costs can remove roughly 1.5 to 2 percentage points before personal tax.
| Dublin property | Typical purchase price | Monthly rent | Annual gross rent | Gross yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bedroom | €300,000 | €2,000 | €24,000 | 8.0% |
| 2 bedrooms | €395,000 | €2,500 | €30,000 | 7.6% |
| 3 bedrooms | €525,000 | €3,000 | €36,000 | 6.9% |
| 4+ bedrooms | €975,000 | €4,500 | €54,000 | 5.5% |
| Dublin average | — | — | — | ~7.0% |
Everything a foreign buyer should know before buying in Dublin
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Does a Dublin rental still make money with a mortgage?
It can, but the cash flow gets thin very quickly once we borrow heavily.
The Central Bank still limits standard buy-to-let borrowing to 70% of the property's value, so a landlord normally needs at least a 30% deposit.
Buy-to-let borrowing is also expensive compared with an owner-occupier mortgage. Current representative rates from major Irish lenders sit around 5%.
Take a €395,000 two-bedroom apartment. A 30% deposit means putting in €118,500 and borrowing €276,500.
At roughly 4.85% over 20 years, the mortgage repayment comes to about €1,800 a month, or around €21,600 a year. Rent of €2,500 a month produces €30,000 a year.
The mortgage therefore absorbs roughly 72% of gross rental income before service charges, insurance, maintenance, Local Property Tax or personal tax.
If we use €4,000 a year as a simple allowance for those non-financing operating costs, only about €4,400 of annual cash remains before personal tax.
Some of the mortgage payment is principal, so the landlord is building equity. Fine. But someone looking for strong monthly cash income should pay much more attention to that €4,400 figure than to the advertised 7.6% gross yield.
| Dublin 2-bed example | Amount |
|---|---|
| Purchase price | €395,000 |
| Deposit at 30% | €118,500 |
| Mortgage | €276,500 |
| Monthly rent | €2,500 |
| Annual rent | €30,000 |
| Gross yield | 7.6% |
| Approx. annual mortgage payments | €21,600 |
| Illustrative operating costs | €4,000 |
| Approx. cash left before personal tax | €4,400 |
Does Irish tax take too much out of Dublin rental income?
For a higher-income individual landlord, tax can turn a decent Dublin rental into a fairly modest cash investment.
Irish rental profit is taxed as income. Someone already paying the higher 40% Income Tax rate can also face USC and, depending on the situation, PRSI on rental profits.
Landlords can deduct qualifying expenses, including eligible mortgage interest, insurance, repairs and various costs connected with renting the property.
The distinction between interest and principal is crucial. Interest can generally reduce taxable rental profit when the conditions are met, while principal repayments do not.
A landlord can therefore have relatively little cash left after paying the mortgage while still reporting a taxable rental profit.
There is some relief. Revenue currently allows eligible individual landlords to claim Residential Premises Rental Income Relief of up to €1,000 for 2026 and €1,000 for 2027.
That relief applies only to Income Tax. It does not reduce USC or PRSI, and Revenue also limits the amount according to the landlord's qualifying rental profit.
On a Dublin apartment producing €25,000 to €30,000 of annual rent, €1,000 helps. It does not fundamentally change the return.
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Did the new Dublin rent rules improve things for landlords?
Partly. The new rules make it easier to correct an under-rented property between qualifying tenancies, while landlords now have less freedom once a new tenancy is running.
Since March 2026, rent increases during most tenancies have been limited to CPI or 2%, whichever is lower.
For landlords, the biggest improvement concerns properties where the existing rent has fallen well below the market. When a qualifying tenancy ends because the tenant leaves voluntarily or breaches their obligations, the landlord can generally reset the rent to the current market level.
At the end of a six-year Tenancy of Minimum Duration, rents can also be brought back toward market levels under the new framework.
That removes one of the nastier features of the old system, where a property could remain stuck well below market rent even after tenant turnover.
The other side of the reform is stronger security for tenants. New tenancies now run through rolling six-year minimum-duration periods.
Small landlords with three or fewer tenancies retain more options than larger landlords. Larger landlords with four or more tenancies generally cannot end a tenancy during or at the end of the period simply because they want to sell, occupy, renovate or change the property's use.
For an individual investor buying one apartment, the new regime is therefore less damaging than it can appear at first glance. Rent resetting has improved, but exit planning deserves much more attention before buying.
| Dublin rental rule | Current position | What it means for landlords |
|---|---|---|
| Rent increases during most tenancies | CPI or 2%, whichever is lower | Rent can lag the open market |
| Qualifying tenant departure | Rent may reset to market | Helps under-rented properties |
| New tenancy structure | Rolling 6-year minimum duration | Longer commitment |
| Small landlord | More termination grounds | More flexibility |
| Larger landlord | Much tighter termination rules | Harder to recover vacant possession |
Are small landlords still leaving Dublin's rental market?
Some still are, but the latest data show a more mixed picture than a simple landlord exodus.
The RTB counted 246,477 registered private and cost-rental tenancies nationally in Q1 2026, 2.4% more than a year earlier and the highest level since the current register series began. The number of landlords also increased.
At the same time, the Central Bank counted only around 46,000 buy-to-let mortgage accounts at the end of Q1 2026, down about 11.5% year on year.
Those two datasets measure different things, so we should not compare them mechanically. Still, the direction is interesting.
Ireland is recording more registered tenancies while conventional buy-to-let mortgage accounts continue to shrink. Institutional rental stock, cash landlords, new apartments and better registration can all help explain that gap.
The Housing Agency has also previously found evidence that rent restrictions contributed to some small-landlord exits.
Small landlords have clearly been under pressure, although the newest RTB data suggest the private rental sector itself is no longer shrinking across every measure.
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Could new apartment construction finally cool Dublin rents?
Eventually, yes, but the latest Dublin construction numbers are still too weak to make falling rents our base case.
The CSO recorded 3,180 Dublin housing completions in Q2 2026, down 16.4% from the same quarter a year earlier.
Of those homes, 2,006 were apartments. Dublin accounted for 75.5% of all apartments completed in Ireland during the quarter.
Dublin City was even more concentrated: 1,170 of its 1,280 completed homes were apartments.
New supply therefore does matter, particularly for investors buying standard one- and two-bedroom units that may compete directly with newly completed schemes.
But 2,006 apartments across the entire Dublin region in one quarter still does not look like enough supply to create broad rental oversupply.
The risk is more local. Buy beside several large apartment projects arriving at roughly the same time and competition can rise quickly even while Dublin overall remains undersupplied.
| Q2 2026 completions | Dublin | Ireland | Dublin share |
|---|---|---|---|
| All homes | 3,180 | 8,823 | 36.0% |
| Apartments | 2,006 | 2,658 | 75.5% |
| Scheme houses | 1,126 | 4,738 | 23.8% |
| Single houses | 48 | 1,427 | 3.4% |
| Annual change in total completions | -16.4% | -3.6% | — |
Are one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments the best Dublin rentals?
For a normal buy-to-let investor today, usually yes. Smaller Dublin apartments give us much more rent for every euro spent on the property.
Compare a €300,000 one-bedroom earning €24,000 a year with a €975,000 larger home earning €54,000.
The larger home costs €675,000 more but produces only €30,000 of extra annual rent. That additional €675,000 is therefore earning a gross incremental yield of roughly 4.4%.
A two-bedroom around €395,000 can still generate about 7.6% gross, while a larger family property may be closer to 5.5%.
There are exceptions. A house rented room by room may produce stronger numbers, while certain premium apartments can have very expensive service charges.
Apartment buyers also need to check the management company's finances, sinking fund, insurance history and any fire-safety or structural remediation issues. A €4,000 or €5,000 annual service charge can make an apparently cheap apartment much less attractive.
But for conventional long-term rentals, today's Dublin numbers clearly favour smaller units.
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Can rising Dublin property prices make up for weak rental cash flow?
Yes, but we would be taking a much bigger bet on future property prices.
Dublin apartments were still up 7.0% year on year in the latest CSO data, while the broader Dublin market rose 4.6%.
For a €395,000 apartment, a 5% annual price increase would add €19,750 in paper value.
If the buyer originally invested €118,500 as a 30% deposit, that €19,750 increase would equal almost 17% of the initial deposit before transaction costs, tax and mortgage repayments are considered.
Leverage makes property appreciation powerful. It makes a downturn painful for exactly the same reason.
A 10% decline on the same apartment would wipe €39,500 from its value, equivalent to around one third of the original cash deposit.
We also have to remember where we are starting. According to the latest CSO index, Dublin residential values are already about 10.9% above the previous 2007 peak and almost 175% above their 2012 low.
Future price growth is useful upside. We would be much less comfortable buying a weak-yielding rental that only makes sense if Dublin prices keep climbing quickly.
Is buying a Dublin rental with cash much better than using a mortgage?
Yes. With current buy-to-let rates around 5%, an all-cash buyer gets a much cleaner return from a Dublin rental.
Consider the same €395,000 two-bedroom earning €30,000 a year.
Before operating costs, the gross return is about 7.6%. If the property costs €4,000 a year to operate, income before personal tax falls to €26,000, or about 6.6% of the purchase price.
A heavily leveraged investor gets very different cash flow because the mortgage consumes more than €21,000 a year in our example.
This explains why people can look at the same Dublin property and disagree completely about whether it is a good investment.
A cash buyer may see an asset producing around 6% before tax plus possible appreciation.
A highly leveraged buyer may see only a few thousand euros of free annual cash after costs.
For Dublin today, financing can change the answer almost as much as the property itself.
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What can go badly wrong with a Dublin rental?
The easiest way to lose the appeal of a Dublin rental is to overpay for a property with a weak yield and then discover several costs at once.
A leveraged buyer can easily face a buy-to-let mortgage near 5%, several thousand euros in annual apartment service charges, repairs, insurance and tax while rent inside the tenancy may rise by no more than 2%.
Apartment buildings add another layer of risk. Weak sinking funds, fire-safety remediation, water ingress, structural repairs or major common-area works can create bills that never appeared in the listing's attractive gross-yield calculation.
Exit risk also deserves attention now. Stronger tenant protections can make vacant possession harder to obtain in some situations, especially for larger landlords.
That can hurt when selling because an owner-occupier generally wants an empty property. A tenanted apartment may therefore appeal to a narrower group of buyers.
The latest price data leave less room for sloppy purchasing too. Dublin apartment values are already rising quickly and sit far above their post-crisis lows.
A solid Dublin rental can absorb an occasional bad year. A property bought at a 5% gross yield with maximum leverage has much less room to absorb anything.
What gross yield should you demand from a Dublin rental today?
We would currently want at least 7% gross before becoming interested, and closer to 8% if the property is being bought with substantial debt.
At around 5%, Dublin buy-to-let becomes hard to defend as an income investment. Current mortgage rates alone can sit close to that level, before the owner pays service charges, insurance, maintenance and tax.
Between 6% and 7%, the property can work, but we would want either low leverage, unusually low running costs or a particularly strong location.
At 7% to 8%, the numbers become much more comfortable because the landlord has several percentage points available before financing and operating costs eat through the rent.
Above 8%, we would become interested quickly, but we would also ask why the property is yielding so much. Sometimes the explanation is simply a cheap area. Sometimes it is a poor building, high service charges, a difficult tenant situation or unusually weak resale demand.
| Gross yield | Our view today | What we would look for |
|---|---|---|
| Below 5% | Weak | Major reason to expect exceptional appreciation |
| 5%–6% | Hard to justify | Low debt and very low costs |
| 6%–7% | Selective | Good location or conservative financing |
| 7%–8% | Interesting | Strong normal buy-to-let territory |
| Above 8% | Potentially very good | Check carefully for hidden problems |
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Who should still buy rental property in Dublin?
Dublin buy-to-let still suits investors with plenty of equity, a long holding period and the patience to reject properties that do not produce enough rent.
The strongest setup today is usually a well-located one- or two-bedroom apartment around a 7% to 8% gross yield, with manageable service charges and no obvious remediation problem.
A cash buyer has the easiest numbers. Moderate leverage can also work because some of the rent pays down the loan while the investor keeps exposure to future price growth.
Maximum leverage makes the investment much harder. At a mortgage rate close to 5%, an average-yielding Dublin property can leave surprisingly little cash each year.
Larger family homes look particularly weak when they are bought simply for standard long-term letting. The extra capital required often produces too little extra rent.
Someone planning to sell again in two or three years should also be cautious. Buying costs, tenancy rules and the possibility of selling with a tenant make Dublin a poor place for a very short buy-to-let holding period.
| Investor profile | Dublin buy-to-let today | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cash buyer with 7%–8% yield | Strong | Keeps most of the property's income return |
| Moderate leverage and strong yield | Reasonable | Debt still leaves some margin |
| Maximum leverage | Mixed to weak | Very thin cash flow |
| Large family home around 5%–6% yield | Weak | Too much capital for the rent |
| Small apartment around 8% | Attractive if the building is sound | Strong rent-to-price ratio |
| Short-term investor | Poor fit | Too much transaction and tenancy friction |
| Long-term income investor | Better fit | Time helps absorb weaker years |
So, is rental property still worth it in Dublin?
Yes, but the good deals are much narrower than Dublin's huge rents might suggest.
Dublin still has almost everything a landlord wants on the demand side. Tenants are competing for limited accommodation, rents are rising quickly, and smaller apartments can still reach gross yields around 7% to 8%.
The latest data also give us little reason to expect that pressure to disappear soon. Dublin housing completions recently fell 16.4% year on year, even though the capital already receives three quarters of Ireland's new apartment supply.
The harder numbers appear after the property is bought. A typical buy-to-let mortgage costs close to 5%, Dublin apartment prices are still rising around 7% annually, tax can take a large share of rental profit, and stronger tenant protections reduce some of the owner's flexibility.
Those conditions hit highly leveraged buyers much harder than cash investors.
Our threshold would therefore be quite demanding today. A small Dublin apartment bought around a 7% to 8% gross yield, with sensible service charges and moderate debt, can still be a very good rental investment.
At 5% to 6% gross with a 70% mortgage, we would usually walk away.
Dublin still offers attractive rental investments, but simply owning a rental property there is no longer enough. The purchase price and financing have to be right from day one.
Everything a foreign buyer should know before buying in Dublin
The pack also covers the repair levy waiting inside some apartment blocks, and why sale agreed means nothing here.
OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis tests whether rental property is still worth buying in Dublin once the full investment is considered rather than rent levels alone. We looked at rental momentum and tenant demand, purchase prices and achievable yields, mortgage financing, taxation, regulation, new housing supply, property type and the practical risks of eventually selling.
We kept new-tenancy rents separate from existing-tenancy rents because they answer different questions. New rents show what a property entering the market may achieve today, while existing rents give a better picture of how income can develop after a tenant is already in place.
Purchase prices and rental income were then combined into representative gross-yield examples. Those yields were not treated as the final return: mortgage payments, service charges, insurance, maintenance, Local Property Tax, vacancy and personal taxation were considered separately because they can materially change the economics.
Financing was tested using the Central Bank's standard buy-to-let loan-to-value limit and representative rates from Irish lenders. We compared leveraged ownership with a cash purchase because the current cost of debt creates very different cash-flow outcomes for the same Dublin property.
We also treated capital appreciation separately from rental performance. Recent Dublin price growth can improve total returns, particularly when leverage is used, but future appreciation was treated as potential upside rather than something required to rescue a weak rental yield.
Rental regulation was assessed using the rules applying from March 2026, including limits on rent increases, circumstances where rent can return toward market levels, the six-year tenancy framework and the different termination rules affecting smaller and larger landlords.
Housing supply was assessed using Dublin completion data rather than national construction alone. The broad figures help judge whether citywide rental pressure is likely to ease, while recognising that an investor can still face much heavier competition around an individual cluster of new apartment developments.
Our 7% to 8% preferred gross-yield range is therefore an investment threshold drawn from the combined evidence rather than an official market benchmark. It reflects the margin we would want before financing, ownership costs and taxation start eating into the rent.
Key sources used for this analysis include the RTB/ESRI Rent Index for Q1 2026, the Residential Tenancies Board's Rent Index material, the RTB Director's Quarterly Update, the CSO Residential Property Price Index for June 2026, the CSO New Dwelling Completions release for Q2 2026, the Central Bank of Ireland's mortgage measures, Bank of Ireland's mortgage rates, PTSB's buy-to-let mortgage information, Revenue's guidance on Irish rental income, Revenue's guidance on allowable rental expenses, Revenue's Residential Premises Rental Income Relief guidance, the RTB's rules for setting and reviewing private rents from March 2026, the RTB's tenancy-duration guidance, and the Government of Ireland's overview of the 2026 rental-sector reforms.
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