Rents are rising at the fastest pace since 2008 as strong demand outstrips supply, according to an index.
Across the UK, private sector rents in September were 4.6% higher than a year earlier at £968 per month on average, marking the strongest growth in 13 years, Zoopla found.
Excluding London, rents across the UK were up by 6.0% annually, a figure which Zoopla said was a 14-year high.
Rents in the South West of England were up by 9.0% annually, making it the region registering the fastest rental growth in the third quarter of 2021.
And rents in Purbeck in Dorset were up by 16.2% annually, making it the location with the highest rate of rental growth.
Zoopla said demand is continuing to outstrip supply and putting an upward pressure on rents.
Rental growth is also partly due to the popularity of properties in higher price bands, reflecting an ongoing search for space during the coronavirus pandemic.
Rents in London are also now starting to climb as people return to offices, with annual price growth of 1.6% recorded in the latest report, compared with falls of nearly 10% at the start of the year.
Annual growth in rental prices stood at 2.7% in Scotland (averaging £627 per month), 5.8% in Northern Ireland (£633 per month typically) and 7.7% in Wales (£660 per month).
Grainne Gilmore, head of research at Zoopla said: “The swing back of demand into city centres, including London, has underpinned another rise in rents in quarter three, especially as the supply of rental property remains tight.”
She added: “Meanwhile, just as in the sales market, there is still a cohort of renters looking for properties offering more space, or a more rural or coastal location.”
Ireland’s house prices are now just 7.4 per cent below their credit-fuelled 2007 peak.
Prices have risen 106.5 per cent from their 2013 low point following the 2008 banking and property crash.
Ireland has consistently failed to meet housing demand each year since that crash.
The latest figures, from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that in the year to September residential property prices rose by 12.4 per cent.
Although Dublin continues to have the country’s most expensive post codes prices rose at a faster rate outside the capital, at 13.2 per cent, compared to 11.5 per cent.
In Dublin, house prices rose by 14.1 per cent in Dublin City while in Fingal on the north side, by just 8.6 per cent.
Prices rose fastest outside Dublin in the Border region, by 21.9 per cent but even in the slowest growing region – the Mid-East – house prices still rose by 10.7 per cent.
The CSO said the annual rate of increase more than doubled from 6.1 per cent between March and June to 13 per cent between July and September.
Price increases for new homes went from 2.2 per cent to 3.3 per cent over the same two quarters.
The volume of transactions in September was up 14.3 per cent on August and up 34.8 per cent compared to September the year before.
New homes accounted for 14 per cent of transaction, existing houses for 86 per cent of them.
The national mid-point price paid for a property was €272,000 compared to €400,000 in Dublin.
Within the Dublin region, the highest midpoint – median – price was €570,000 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, the lowest was €368,500 in South Dublin.
Outside Dublin, the highest median price was €375,000 in Wicklow and the lowest was €125,000 in Leitrim.
Blackrock is the country’s most expensive postcode, (A94), with the highest median price of €672,500.
The five most expensive post codes are all in Dublin.
Outside Dublin, the highest median post code is Greystones, Co Wicklow (A63) at €495,000.
The lowest priced post code is Clones in Monagahan (H23) at €80,000.
Goodbody stockbrokers told RTE that house prices grew at an annualised pace of 25 per cent in the three months to September, the fastest pace of growth in seven years.
Prices for second-hand homes grew by 13 per cent compared to 3.3 per cent for new builds.
