The cost of renting in Dublin’s commuter areas has risen 14 per cent since last year.

The average cost of renting in Dublin’s commuter areas such as counties Meath, Wicklow, Kildare and Louth is €911, the latest rental report by property website Daft has found.

The report’s author, economist Ronan Lyons, said the worst rates of rental inflation were no longer confined to the Dublin region and have passed to its commuter counties.

“This trend has solidified in recent months. Whereas year- on-year inflation in Dublin rents has eased from 16 per cent to 6 per cent since April 2014, inflation in the commuter counties has done the opposite, going from 7.6 per cent in early 2014 to 14 per cent now,” he said.

The national average rent is €960 per month, which is 8.2 per cent higher than at the same point last year, but it is down from the 10.4 per cent increase in mid-2014.

South Co Dublin remains the most expensive area tin the country to rent, with average rent now €1,528.

There were fewer properties available to rent nationwide on May 1st than at any point since 2006, according to the report.

There were 4,300 properties available to rent nationwide in early May, compared with 7,200 on the same day last year.

The figure for May 1st is the lowest since the series was started in January 2006. The highest was in mid-2009, when there were almost 24,000 properties available to rent nationwide.

In the other city centres, rents continue to rise but at a slower pace.

In Cork city rents are 7.5 per cent higher than a year previously, similar to the increase seen in Galway, 7.4 per cent.

In Limerick, rents have risen by 6.8 per cent in a year, while in Waterford city rental inflation was 5.6 per cent.

Mr Lyons said the number of people renting has grown rapidly in the past decade but there has not been as little choice in the market since 2006.

He described the supply on the Dublin markets as “unhealthily low.”

“This extreme shortage of supply is at the heart of not only rising rents and house prices but also issues around working homeless, student accommodation shortages and a lack of options for those in mortgage arrears,” he said.

“Solving the lack of housing will require initiatives to moderate the high cost of building homes in this country and completely reforming the way social housing is funded.”

Mr Lyons said capping rents was not a solution to the problem, because it tackled the symptoms and not the cause.