Rent cap list expanded to include Cobh and Maynooth

Areas are designated as Rent Pressure Zones when rents have risen by at least 7% in four of the previous six quarters

The electoral areas of Cobh in Co Cork and Maynooth, Co Kildare, are to be added to the list of areas subject to a rent cap.

This follows a quarterly report from the Residential Tenancies Board.

They will join a list of 12 areas where rent increases will be limited to 4%.

These are local electoral areas in Dublin and surrounding counties of Kildare, Wicklow and Meath as well as Cork and Galway.

In Dublin apartment rents still rose by 11% last year as the cap does not apply to new builds or modified apartments.

Rosalind Carroll of the RTB said that Dublin is now 8.3% above the previous peak in 2007 with an average rent of €1,422 a month.

In the rest of the country rents are still below the peak, with an average of €759.

Rents range from the lowest in Glenties, Co Donegal with €338 to Stillorgan in Dublin where the average is €2,062 a month.

Areas are designated as Rent Pressure Zones when rents have risen by at least 7% in four of the previous six quarters and are above the national average.

Drogheda and areas in Limerick were just below the national average rent to qualify for the cap, even though they had seen increases of greater than 7% over four quarters.

The average national rent was €986 per month.

Overall, rents increased by 7.8% year on year in the last quarter of 2016.