A newly published report shows that rents around the country are continuing to rise, despite last December’s extension of rent reviews to two years.

However, the latest quarterly index from the Residential Tenancies Board indicates that the rate of growth in the private sector is starting to slow down.

Nationally, private sector rents grew by 8.6% to March of this year – down from an annual rate of 9.2% in the final quarter of last year.

David Duffy, Economist with the ESRI, has said the report also shows that more people are renting outside Dublin; “the commuter counties around Dublin are showing particularly strong rates of growth.

“And that may well reflect affordability issues, forcing people to rent in the counties around Dublin and commute in rather than rent within Dublin.

“We are seeing commuter counties, the rate of growth in rents does remain quite strong in those counties.”