Rent took 28.5% of disposable income in Fingal on the CSO’s 2024 measure

Fingal’s median private rent per person was €9,900 a year in 2024, or €825 a month. Dublin City’s was slightly higher at €10,000. Yet rent took a bigger share of income in Fingal, where the typical tenant had less coming in. The CSO’s rental-sector study released on 5 November puts the figures at 28.5% in Fingal and 27.1% in Dublin City.

What the rent figures measure

The CSO matched tenancies registered at the end of 2024 with income records. For each area, it divided the median annual rent per person by the median annual disposable income. In Fingal that calculation was €9,900 ÷ €34,717. In Dublin City it was €10,000 ÷ €36,895. At the other end of the scale, Leitrim’s figure was 18.4%.

Two details matter when comparing these numbers with your own rent. The CSO estimated each person’s rent by dividing the registered rent by the reported number of occupants. Families and housemates can split costs very differently. And the figures describe existing tenancies in 2024. They tell someone viewing a flat this weekend little about the asking rent on that particular property.

How much of your monthly pay goes on rent?

Use your own share of the rent and your income after tax and social insurance, over the same period. Someone taking home €2,500 a month and paying €950 rent spends 38% of their income on rent. That leaves €1,550 for everything else. An extra €100 in rent would bring the share to 42% and leave €1,450, before heating or transport.

For a house share, use the amount you actually transfer each month. For a joint household budget, use the full rent and both incomes. If you pay Irish income tax, check who can claim the Rent Tax Credit and use the rent credit calculator separately when planning your annual budget.

Archive photograph: Eric Jones, Smithfield Square, 25 July 2012, via Geograph / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. Licence. Social previews crop this photograph to fit.