Rents hit record highs and exceed Celtic Tiger levels

Its quarterly rental report shows rents across Ireland rose by an average of 12.4% in the year to June.

The report also showed that the average monthly rent across the country during the second quarter of this year was €1,304, which is €274 per month higher than the previous peak in 2008.

In Dublin, the increase in rents over the same period was just over 13%.

That means that rents in the capital are 34% - or almost €500 a month - more than at the peak of the boom a decade ago.

The report shows rents continue to rise rapidly in other cities.

In Limerick city, rents were almost 21% higher than a year ago, while in Waterford the increase was more than 19%.

Galway saw its rents increase by nearly 16% in the same period, while in Cork rents rose by almost 13%.

This comes after an image of a homeless family of six sleeping in a Garda station overnight, as well as an ongoing occupation of a house in north Dublin have both struck at the heart of this tragic, senseless housing crisis.

The report’s author and economist Ronan Lyons said: "While the building of new homes appears to be having some effect in the sales market, with inflation easing somewhat, there is no counterpart in the rental sector.

"While urban apartments make up almost all the net need for new homes in the country as a whole, just 13% of new homes completed in the year to March were urban apartments. In that context, it is unsurprising to see rents rise once more.

"As before, with such a mismatch between supply and demand, policy must focus on dramatically increasing the construction of urban apartments, for both market and social housing needs."