Dublin · report
Buy or rent in Dublin
Renting the average home costs less each month than owning it. Owning counts interest, running costs and the return the deposit could earn, at the average sale price; rent is the average rent of the tenancies registered with the RTB in the year. Repaying the loan is saving, so it is left out.
- Rent per month
- €2,159
- Owning per month
- €2,298
Try your own numbers
Starting from the average sale price of €597,548 and the average rent of tenancies registered in 2025, €2,159 a month, in Dublin, and a mortgage rate of 3.5%.
Renting costs less each month than owning.
- Rent a month
- €2,159
- Owning a month, not recovered
- €2,320
- Interest
- €1,569
- Running costs
- €498
- Return given up
- €254
- Cash out a month, if buying
- €2,913
Gross rental yield in Dublin
A year's rent as a share of the average sale price, for each year the RTB published it. Higher means rent is dear compared with buying.
Show the numbers
| Period | Dublin |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 4.4% |
| 2024 | 4.3% |
| 2023 | 4.3% |
| 2022 | 4.1% |
| 2021 | 4.2% |
| 2020 | 4.5% |
| 2019 | 4.6% |
| 2018 | 4.4% |
| 2017 | 4.2% |
| 2016 | 4.0% |
| 2015 | 4.2% |
| 2014 | 3.9% |
| 2013 | 3.6% |
| 2012 | 4.3% |
| 2011 | 4.1% |
| 2010 | 3.9% |
The comparison counts only the costs of owning you never get back: interest, running costs and what the deposit and purchase costs could earn elsewhere. Loan repayments build equity, so they are left out. So is any rise in the home's value, because nobody knows it in advance. Rents here are the Residential Tenancies Board's average rent of the tenancies registered in the year, by county, with Cork and Galway cities apart; a council without a figure of its own takes its region's, and Dublin's councils take Dublin's.
Other reports for Dublin
Sale prices have an 80% chance of landing between €514,680 and €698,158 by August 2027.
- Expected, August 2027
- €606,419
- Chance of a rise
- 55%
Figures for Ireland: Dublin has no reliable figures of its own.
At the average sale price, a home costs €597,548. With 10% down and a 30-year mortgage, the payment is €2,400 a month. Ireland sets no cap on the payment; the Central Bank limits most mortgages to four times gross income for first-time buyers and 3.5 times for others.
- Payment, two incomes
- 28%
- Payment, one income
- 56%
29.4% fewer homes were granted planning permission in the last 12 months than in an average year of the past decade.
- Permitted, 12 months
- 10,030
- Per 1,000 residents
- 6.3
Sale prices have fallen by 3% or more once since 2005. That fall began in February 2007.
- Deepest fall
- −59.6%
- Recovery from the low
- 149 months
5.9% of the 565,321 homes counted in the 2022 census were unoccupied: vacant, or holiday homes.
- Empty, 2022 census
- 5.9%
- Empty homes
- 33,414
In 2025, 88% of the planning permissions granted for homes were for extensions, alterations or conversions of existing ones.
- Work on existing homes, 2025
- 88%
Public bodies signed €162.9M of housing works here in 2025, and €1.4B since 2017.
- Signed in 2025
- €162.9M
- Per resident, 2025
- €104