Rental Market Report for the Second Quarter 2026 — based on the Daft.ie Rental Report

Rents in Wicklow continued to rise across the second quarter of 2026, with every property segment recording annual increases and the county remaining one of the most expensive in the country outside Dublin. A two-bedroom apartment in Wicklow now costs €2,174 a month on average, up 6.1% year-on-year, while a two-bedroom house averages €2,141, up 7.5%. Family-sized homes saw some of the strongest annual growth: four-bedroom houses rose 9.4% to €3,221 a month.

Wicklow sits within Daft.ie's “Leinster (excluding Dublin)” region, which recorded the largest quarterly rent increase of any region nationally in Q2 2026 — up 2.9% between March and June, against 0.8% in Dublin and 1.1% in the other cities. Regional annual inflation reached 9.8%, up from 6.0% a year earlier. Report author Prof. Ronan Lyons has suggested this reflects the fact that the market-reset effect of the March 2026 rent-control changes is “still working through” in this part of the country, in contrast with Dublin, where the adjustment looks largely complete.

Note: Daft.ie's county-level tables report annual (year-on-year) changes rather than quarter-on-quarter changes for individual counties; the 2.9% quarterly figure is the Leinster-wide regional rate, which is the finest geographic level at which quarterly change is published.

• Market rents rose 1.4% nationally between March and June 2026 — close to the 2015–2024 average of 1.6% and a marked slowdown from the record 4.4% quarterly jump in Q1 2026 that followed the new rent-control rules.
• Annual rent inflation was little changed at 7.7% (7.8% in March), still well above the 4.4% recorded a year earlier.
• The average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment nationally was €2,204 in Q2 2026 — 42% above pre-Covid levels and 78% above the Celtic Tiger peak.
• Room rents rose 1.5% nationally in the quarter (annual inflation 6.3%); the average double room in a house cost €812 a month, 39% above pre-Covid and 83% above the Celtic Tiger peak.
• Regional quarterly rent growth: Dublin +0.8%; other cities +1.1%; Leinster (ex-Dublin) +2.9%; Munster (ex-cities) +2.8%; Connacht-Ulster (ex-Galway) +2.3%.
• Nationwide availability stood at 2,373 homes to rent on 1 August 2026, up 5% year-on-year but still the fourth-lowest August total since 2006 and 46% below the 2015–2019 average. Dublin availability fell 18% year-on-year, while the rest of the country rose sharply from a low base.

Source: Daft.ie Rental Report, 2026 Q2 (Prof. Ronan Lyons, Trinity College Dublin).

• Market rents in Leinster outside Dublin — the region containing Wicklow — rose 2.9% in Q2 2026, the largest quarterly increase of any of the five regions Daft.ie tracks.
• Annual rent inflation in the region reached 9.8%, up from 6.0% a year earlier.
• The average two-bedroom apartment in the region cost €1,752 a month in Q2 2026, 61% above pre-Covid levels and 104% above the Celtic Tiger peak.
• Room rents in the region rose just 0.5% in the quarter — the smallest increase of any region — with annual inflation at 5.5%; the average double room in a house cost €698.
• There were 514 homes for rent in Leinster (ex-Dublin) on 1 August 2026, up 30% year-on-year but still 40% below the 2015–2019 average. Room availability (734 rooms) was down 7% year-on-year but remained one of only three regions with availability above its own 2015–2019 average.

Source: Daft.ie Rental Report, 2026 Q2, “Leinster (excluding Dublin)” section.

Daft.ie's county-level breakdown reports year-on-year percentage changes for Wicklow by property type. The table below sets out the average listed monthly rent for each segment in Q2 2026, alongside its annual change.

Source: Daft.ie Rental Report, 2026 Q2, snapshot of average market rent by region and segment. Percentage changes are year-on-year.

Gross rental yields, Wicklow

Source: Daft.ie Rental Report, 2026 Q2. Gross market yields based on snapshots of listed prices and annual market rent; changes are in percentage points, year-on-year.

Source: Daft.ie Rental Report, 2026 Q2, snapshot of average room rent by region and type. Percentage changes are year-on-year; a small number of segments were excluded from the source table due to low listing volume.

Two features stand out in the Q2 2026 data for Wicklow. First, family-sized housing has led the increases: three- and four-bedroom houses rose 9.2% and 9.4% year-on-year respectively, faster than the county's own two-bedroom apartment rate (6.1%) and well ahead of the national two-bedroom apartment rate (7.7% nationally, per the national index). This points to particularly strong demand from families and commuters seeking larger homes within reach of Dublin.

Second, the smaller end of the market shows more mixed signals: one-bedroom apartments rose sharply (+13.0%) while the studio segment was essentially flat, down 0.3% year-on-year — though studio listings in any single county are a small sample and can be volatile quarter to quarter.

On rooms, single ensuite rooms in houses rose fastest (+4.8%), while room rents in Leinster overall grew only 0.5% quarter-on-quarter, the slowest of any region — suggesting the room-sharing segment in Wicklow and its surrounding region has cooled somewhat compared with the sharper increases seen in full-property rents.

• Lyons's central thesis for Q2 2026 is that the record Q1 rent surge nationally was a one-off correction linked to landlords resetting rents at tenancy turnover under the new March 2026 rules, rather than a new ongoing trend. He notes the adjustment looks “largely complete” in Dublin and the other cities but “still working through” in Leinster and Munster — the regions posting the fastest quarterly growth in Q2.
• If that dynamic continues, Wicklow rents could see further above-average increases through the second half of 2026 as more tenancies turn over, before growth eventually converges toward the slower rates now seen in Dublin.
• Structurally, availability remains the binding constraint: homes for rent across Leinster (ex-Dublin) were still 40% below the 2015–2019 average in August 2026, despite a 30% annual rise from a very low base. Nothing in the Q2 data points to a near-term easing of supply pressure in Wicklow specifically.

• Daft.ie Rental Report, 2026 Q2, author Prof. Ronan Lyons (Trinity College Dublin) and Tom Gillespie, published August 2026.

All figures in this report are drawn directly from the Daft.ie Rental Report 2026 Q2 PDF. Data is Copyright © Daft Media Limited; reproduced here with source credited, as permitted by the report's terms.