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We constantly update this blog post so you can follow Dublin rents with fresh 2026 data.
Dublin rental prices remain high in 2026 because good apartments are scarce, demand is broad, and the strongest locations rent very quickly.
This guide focuses only on residential property in Dublin, with practical numbers for studios, 1-bedroom apartments, 2-bedroom apartments, tenants, demand, costs and taxes.
And if you’re planning to buy a property in this place, you may want to download our pack covering the real estate market in Dublin.
What are typical rents in Dublin as of 2026?
What's the average monthly rent for a studio in Dublin as of 2026?
as of 2026, a normal private studio rent in Dublin is about €1,850 per month, which is roughly $2,000 and €1,850.
For most Dublin studios in 2026, a realistic range is €1,600 to €2,200 per month, or about $1,730 to $2,380 and €1,600 to €2,200.
The lower end is usually found in older or outer Dublin stock, while the higher end is common in Docklands, Dublin 2, Dublin 4, premium student blocks and modern central buildings.
What's the average monthly rent for a 1-bedroom in Dublin as of 2026?
as of 2026, a good working estimate for a 1-bedroom apartment rent in Dublin is €2,100 per month, which is about $2,270 and €2,100.
For most 1-bedroom apartments in Dublin in 2026, the realistic range is €1,850 to €2,500 per month, or about $2,000 to $2,700 and €1,850 to €2,500.
Cheaper 1-bedroom rents are more likely in outer or older-stock parts of Dublin, while the highest 1-bedroom rents are usually in Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2, Dublin 4, Ballsbridge, Ranelagh and central high-spec buildings.
What's the average monthly rent for a 2-bedroom in Dublin as of 2026?
as of 2026, a strong estimate for a 2-bedroom apartment rent in Dublin is €2,700 per month, which is about $2,920 and €2,700.
For most 2-bedroom apartments in Dublin in 2026, the realistic range is €2,350 to €3,200 per month, or about $2,540 to $3,460 and €2,350 to €3,200.
Lower 2-bedroom rents are more likely in outer suburbs and older blocks, while the most expensive 2-bedroom rents are usually in Docklands, Ballsbridge, Sandymount, Dublin 2, Dublin 4, Blackrock and high-quality coastal areas.
By the way, you will find much more detailed rent ranges in our property pack covering the real estate market in Dublin.
What's the average rent per square meter in Dublin as of 2026?
as of 2026, the average rent per square meter for Dublin apartments is about €33 per m² per month, which is about $36 and €33.
Across Dublin neighborhoods in 2026, a realistic range is €28 to €45 per m² per month, or about $30 to $49 and €28 to €45.
Dublin is one of the most expensive rental markets in Ireland, and Dublin rents per square meter are clearly higher than in most other Irish cities because jobs, universities and public transport are concentrated in the capital.
Smaller apartments, modern buildings, strong energy ratings, balconies, parking, lift access and short walks to Luas, DART, Trinity, UCD or Docklands can all push rent per square meter above the Dublin average.
How much have rents changed year-over-year in Dublin in 2026?
as of 2026, Dublin asking rents appear to be up by about 7% year over year, while official new-tenancy rent growth looks closer to 3% to 4% in the latest RTB data.
The main reasons are very limited rental supply, strong job demand, international arrivals, student demand and the fact that many Dublin renters are staying longer because buying is difficult.
Compared with the previous year, 2026 feels more pressured in the asking-rent market because the number of available Dublin homes remains very low and new movers face the highest prices.
What's the outlook for rent growth in Dublin in 2026?
as of 2026, our base-case outlook is that Dublin rents may rise by another 4% to 7% during the year.
The main drivers are low rental availability, strong employment in Dublin, demand from students and expats, and the lack of enough new rental homes in the right locations.
The strongest rent growth in Dublin is likely near Docklands, Grand Canal Dock, Ranelagh, Rathmines, Stoneybatter, Smithfield and DART or Luas-linked suburbs such as Blackrock and Dundrum.
The main risks are rent regulation, weaker hiring, more new supply than expected, affordability pressure and landlords leaving the Dublin rental market faster or slower than expected.
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Which neighborhoods rent best in Dublin as of 2026?
Which neighborhoods have the highest rents in Dublin as of 2026?
as of 2026, the three highest-rent Dublin areas are Grand Canal Dock, Ballsbridge and Sandymount, where good apartments often rent from about €2,400 to €3,600 per month, or about $2,590 to $3,890 and €2,400 to €3,600.
These Dublin neighborhoods command premium rents because they offer strong job access, modern apartment stock, coastal or embassy-area prestige, short commutes and easy access to Dublin city centre.
The typical tenant in these high-rent Dublin neighborhoods is a tech worker, finance worker, corporate assignee, diplomat, senior professional, expat couple or high-income family.
By the way, we’ve written a blog article detailing Sources and methodology: we used Daft.ie Dublin listings, MoveIn’s Dublin rent report and Transport for Ireland’s network maps. We compared live asking rents with official and listing-based rent benchmarks. We also used our own area-level demand notes for Dublin.
Where do young professionals prefer to rent in Dublin right now?
The top Dublin neighborhoods for young professionals are Grand Canal Dock, Smithfield and Ranelagh, with Stoneybatter, Portobello, Rathmines and Phibsborough close behind.
Young professionals in these Dublin areas usually pay about €2,000 to €2,800 per month for a studio or 1-bedroom, or about $2,160 to $3,020 and €2,000 to €2,800.
These areas attract young professionals because they offer short commutes, Luas or DART access, cafés, gyms, bars, restaurants, modern apartments and easy access to Dublin city centre jobs.
By the way, you will find a detailed tenant analysis in our property pack covering the real estate market in Dublin.
Where do families prefer to rent in Dublin right now?
The top Dublin areas for families are Clontarf, Blackrock and Dundrum, with Raheny, Glasnevin, Terenure, Rathgar, Stillorgan, Dún Laoghaire and Malahide also popular.
Families in these Dublin neighborhoods usually pay about €2,700 to €4,200 per month for 2- to 3-bedroom apartments or houses, or about $2,920 to $4,540 and €2,700 to €4,200.
These areas work well for families because they offer parks, schools, larger homes, safer residential streets, DART or Luas access and a calmer daily life than the city centre.
Educational options near these family areas include Blackrock College near Blackrock, Mount Anville and UCD-linked areas near Stillorgan, St Paul’s College near Raheny, and many established primary schools around Clontarf and Dundrum.
Which areas near transit or universities rent faster in Dublin in 2026?
as of 2026, the fastest-renting Dublin areas near transit or universities are Grand Canal Dock, Ranelagh and Blackrock, with strong demand also near Trinity, UCD, DCU, Pearse, Dundrum and Dún Laoghaire.
In these high-demand Dublin areas, well-priced apartments often receive serious applications within 7 to 14 days, and the best 1-bedroom units can move even faster.
A short walk to Luas, DART, Trinity, UCD or Docklands can add about €100 to €300 per month to rent in Dublin, or about $110 to $325 and €100 to €300.
Which neighborhoods are most popular with expats in Dublin right now?
The most popular Dublin neighborhoods for expats are Grand Canal Dock, Ballsbridge and Ranelagh, with IFSC, Sandymount, Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire, Portobello and Smithfield also in demand.
Expats in these Dublin neighborhoods usually pay about €2,200 to €3,600 per month for a furnished studio, 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom apartment, or about $2,380 to $3,890 and €2,200 to €3,600.
These neighborhoods attract expats because they offer furnished apartments, short commutes, international employers, English-speaking services, transport links, cafés, gyms and an easy first landing point in Dublin.
The most visible expat groups in these Dublin areas include British, American, French, Spanish, Italian, Indian and other European and tech-sector communities, although exact neighborhood-level nationality data is limited.
And if you are also an expat, you may want to read our Sources and methodology: we used Daft.ie furnished apartment listings, MoveIn Dublin rent data and Transport for Ireland maps. We treated expat demand as a practical market estimate, not an official count. We also used our own relocation-focused Dublin research.
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Who rents, and what do tenants want in Dublin right now?
What tenant profiles dominate rentals in Dublin?
The top three tenant profiles in Dublin are young professionals, couples or sharers, and students or relocating expats.
A practical 2026 estimate is that young professionals represent about 35% of active Dublin apartment demand, couples and sharers about 35%, and students or expats about 20%, with families and other renters making up the rest.
Young professionals usually want studios or 1-bedroom apartments, couples and sharers usually want 1- or 2-bedroom apartments, and students or expats often want furnished studios, shared apartments or modern city-centre units.
If you want to optimize your cashflow, you can read our Sources and methodology: we used RTB’s May 2026 tenancy data, MoveIn bedroom data and Trinity College Dublin student information. We inferred tenant profiles from property size, location and demand drivers. We also used our own buyer and landlord research for Dublin.
Do tenants prefer furnished or unfurnished in Dublin?
In Dublin apartments, we estimate that about 65% to 75% of active tenants prefer furnished rentals, while larger family-house renters are more open to unfurnished or partly furnished homes.
A furnished Dublin apartment can often command a rent premium of about €100 to €250 per month, or about $110 to $270 and €100 to €250, when the furniture is clean, modern and practical.
Furnished rentals are especially popular with international students, expats, corporate assignees, young professionals and newcomers who need to move into Dublin quickly.
Which amenities increase rent the most in Dublin?
The five amenities that tend to increase Dublin rents the most are parking, balcony or outdoor space, strong energy efficiency, modern appliances and a short walk to Luas or DART.
In Dublin in 2026, parking can add about €100 to €200 per month, a balcony €50 to €150, a high energy rating €50 to €150, modern appliances €50 to €120, and Luas or DART access €100 to €300.
In our property pack covering the real estate market in Dublin, we cover what are the best investments a landlord can make.
What renovations get the best ROI for rentals in Dublin?
The five best ROI renovations for Dublin rentals are repainting, modern flooring, bathroom refreshes, kitchen appliance upgrades and better heating or energy controls.
Typical Dublin costs are about €1,000 to €2,500 for repainting, €2,000 to €5,000 for flooring, €3,000 to €8,000 for a bathroom refresh, €1,000 to €3,000 for appliances and €1,500 to €5,000 for heating upgrades, with total rent gains often around €50 to €250 per month when the property looks ready to move into.
Poor ROI renovations in Dublin usually include luxury finishes in average buildings, expensive designer furniture, unusual layouts and upgrades that look premium but do not fix heating, storage, light, damp or everyday comfort.
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How strong is rental demand in Dublin as of 2026?
What's the vacancy rate for rentals in Dublin as of 2026?
as of 2026, a practical working estimate for the Dublin private rental vacancy rate is about 1.5%.
Across Dublin neighborhoods, the realistic vacancy range is about 1% in prime central, Docklands, Luas and DART locations, and about 2% to 3% for weaker, older or overpriced stock.
Compared with a normal balanced rental market, Dublin’s 2026 vacancy rate is extremely low, which means good apartments can receive serious tenant interest very quickly.
Finally please note that you will have all the indicators you need in our property pack covering the real estate market in Dublin.
How many days do rentals stay listed in Dublin as of 2026?
as of 2026, a well-priced Dublin rental apartment usually stays listed for about 10 to 20 days.
The realistic range is under 7 to 10 days for strong 1-bedroom units in places like Docklands, Ranelagh, Dublin 2, Dublin 4 or Stoneybatter, and 25 to 40 days for overpriced or poorly presented properties.
Compared with one year ago, Dublin rentals appear to move at least as fast in 2026 because supply is still thin and tenants have fewer alternatives.
Which months have peak tenant demand in Dublin?
The peak months for tenant demand in Dublin are usually August, September, January and February.
Late summer demand is driven by students, graduates and relocations, while January and February demand comes from job moves, new contracts and people restarting searches after the holidays.
The lowest-demand months in Dublin are usually late November, December and parts of early summer, although strong apartments in good Dublin locations can still rent quickly.
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What will my monthly costs be in Dublin as of 2026?
What property taxes should landlords expect in Dublin as of 2026?
as of 2026, many Dublin landlords should expect Local Property Tax of roughly €333 to €1,000 per year, which is about $360 to $1,080 and €333 to €1,000.
The realistic Dublin range can be lower for modest apartments and much higher for expensive Dublin 4, coastal, large-family or premium homes, so a safe broad range is about €200 to €2,000 per year, or about $215 to $2,160 and €200 to €2,000.
Local Property Tax in Dublin is based on the property’s self-assessed value band, with the 2026 to 2030 cycle using the property value on 1 November 2025.
Please note that, in our property pack covering the real estate market in Dublin, we cover what exemptions or deductions may be available to reduce property taxes for landlords.
What utilities do landlords often pay in Dublin right now?
In Dublin, landlords most commonly pay building insurance, management company service charges, Local Property Tax and sometimes waste charges when waste is bundled into the building service charge.
Typical landlord-paid monthly costs can be about €20 to €60 for insurance, €150 to €400 for apartment service charges, €30 to €85 for LPT and €20 to €40 for waste, or about $22 to $430 across those categories.
The common Dublin practice is that tenants pay electricity, gas, broadband and metered utilities, unless the lease clearly says that bills are included.
How is rental income taxed in Dublin as of 2026?
as of 2026, Irish rental income from a Dublin property is added to the landlord’s taxable income after allowable expenses, and a higher-rate individual landlord can face a total tax drag of about 48% to 52% on net rental profit.
Common deductions for Dublin landlords include repairs, insurance, management fees, service charges, some professional fees, advertising, accounting costs and allowable mortgage interest, subject to Revenue rules.
Common Dublin-specific mistakes include confusing gross rent with net income, forgetting apartment service charges, using asking rents as if they were guaranteed, missing RTB obligations and failing to keep proper Revenue records.
We cover these mistakes, among others, in our Sources and methodology: we used Revenue’s Irish rental income guidance, RTB landlord guidance and Revenue Local Property Tax guidance. We kept the tax explanation simple because personal tax depends on each landlord. We also use our own net-yield model for Dublin property investors.
We did some research and made this infographic to help you quickly compare rental yields of the major cities in Ireland versus those in neighboring countries. It provides a clear view of how this country positions itself as a real estate investment destination, which might interest you if you’re planning to invest there.
What sources have we used to write this blog article?
Whether it’s in our blog articles or the market analyses included in our property pack about Dublin, we always rely on the strongest methodology we can … and we don’t throw out numbers at random.
We also aim to be fully transparent, so below we’ve listed the authoritative sources we used, and explained how we used them and the methods behind our estimates.
| Source | Why we trust it | How we used it |
|---|---|---|
| Residential Tenancies Board, Director’s Quarterly Update, May 2026 | The RTB is Ireland’s rental regulator and uses the national tenancy register. | We used it as the anchor source for registered Dublin tenancy trends. We treated it as stronger than listing portals because it reflects actual tenancies. |
| RTB / ESRI Rent Index dataset | The dataset is based on RTB data and independently analysed by ESRI. | We used it to separate new-tenancy rents from existing-tenancy rents. We used it to avoid overstating Dublin rents based only on asking prices. |
| CSO Housing Hub, rents | The CSO is Ireland’s official statistics agency. | We used it to cross-check official rent definitions. We used it to keep the article focused on private residential rentals in Dublin. |
| Daft.ie Rental Report Q1 2026 | Daft.ie is Ireland’s dominant rental listings platform and its reports are widely followed. | We used it for current asking-rent momentum and supply stress. We treated it as a market-rent source, not an official rent-paid source. |
| Daft.ie live Dublin listings | Daft.ie is a primary source for current advertised rental stock in Dublin. | We used it to sanity-check June 2026 asking rents by area and property type. We did not use it alone for citywide averages because live listings change quickly. |
| MoveIn Dublin rent report Q1 2026 | MoveIn gives transparent bedroom-level rent benchmarks for Dublin listings. | We used it for 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom apartment benchmarks. We cross-checked it against Daft.ie and RTB to keep estimates conservative. |
| Revenue Commissioners, Local Property Tax | Revenue is Ireland’s tax authority. | We used it to explain Local Property Tax liability in Dublin. We used it as the official basis for landlord property-tax costs. |
| Revenue Commissioners, LPT valuation bands and rates | Revenue publishes the legally applicable valuation bands and rates. | We used it to estimate annual Local Property Tax by Dublin property value band. We cross-checked it with Citizens Information for plain-English interpretation. |
| Citizens Information, Local Property Tax | Citizens Information is a government-supported public information service. | We used it to explain Local Property Tax in clearer language. We used it to confirm the 2026 valuation basis for Dublin landlords. |
| Revenue Commissioners, Irish rental income | Revenue is the primary source for rental-income taxation in Ireland. | We used it to explain how Dublin rental income is declared and taxed. We avoided relying on accountant blogs for tax basics. |
| RTB, Rights and responsibilities | The RTB is the statutory body for landlord and tenant obligations. | We used it for landlord and tenant responsibility rules. We used it to frame utilities, standards, maintenance and disputes. |
| Transport for Ireland, Dublin rail and tram map | Transport for Ireland is the official national public-transport information source. | We used it to identify Dublin demand around DART, Luas and rail nodes. We used it to name transit-linked neighborhoods instead of speaking generally. |
| Trinity College Dublin, 2026 prospectuses | Trinity College Dublin is a major university and publishes its own student material. | We used it to identify city-centre student and academic demand. We used it alongside UCD to locate education-driven rental demand. |
| University College Dublin | UCD is one of Dublin’s largest universities and publishes official campus information. | We used it to identify rental demand around Belfield and south-east Dublin. We used it to explain why Donnybrook, Clonskeagh, Ranelagh and Stillorgan stay liquid. |
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