Belfast: Rent prices growing faster than any other UK city

Over eight years and five different flats, one thing in Ryan Hoey's life has been constant - his rent keeps going up. In Belfast, rent prices are growing faster than in any other UK city. "It doesn't surprise me – I think I've seen it in places I've rented before. Those rises have been quite extortionate, in terms of the rate of increase," he said. Hoey recently noticed that a south Belfast apartment is charging £800 a month today, compared to the £550 he paid when living there in 2021. Rents across Northern Ireland have surged over the past five years in every council area, by an average of 51%. PropertyPal's Chief Executive Jordan Buchanan shared his sites pricing and listing data over that period. The average property now costs an extra £335 per month. "In early 2020, the average rent in Northern Ireland was around £650. At the end of 2025 that's grown to nearly £1,000," Buchanan said. There are examples across Northern Ireland. A two-bedroom ground floor apartment, off Belfast's Lisburn Road, was listed for £875 per month in 2021, £1,050 in 2023 and £1,350 last month. Although inflation has seen a general rise in prices and wages, the pace of rent increases has far outstripped