No properties were available to rent within Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) limits outside of Dublin or Kildare in June, according to a new report from the Simon Communities of Ireland.
Its latest ‘Locked Out of the Market’ report found that just 20 properties were available to rent under HAP scheme limits in 16 areas they surveyed during that month.
HAP is a form of social housing support provided by local authorities in Ireland, which allows tenants to receive financial support towards their rent while still being able to work.
The scheme allows local authorities to make monthly rental payments directly to a landlord on behalf of a tenant. In return, the HAP tenant pays a weekly rent contribution to the local authority.
Across the 16 areas surveyed by the charity over three dates in June, 1,303 properties were available to rent at any price. This was an increase of 233 properties (22%) since March 2026.
It was also an increase on March 2025, when 978 properties were available, a rise of 33%, according to the ‘Locked Out of the Market’ report.
Despite an overall increase in rental listings, nine of the 16 study areas had no properties available within HAP limits in both this year’s March and June reports.
These areas were Athlone, Cork City Suburbs, Galway City Suburbs, Galway City Centre, Co Leitrim, Limerick City Suburbs, Limerick City Centre, Portlaoise and Waterford City Centre.
However, the Simon Communities noted that in their latest report in June 2026, the number of areas with no HAP properties had increased to 12, as Cork City Centre, Dundalk and Sligo Town had lost their remaining HAP-eligible properties.
As seen in many previous reports, the supply of properties within HAP limits is predominantly in Dublin.
Of the 20 HAP properties available, 17 (85%) were found across the three Dublin study areas.
Outside of Dublin, only Kildare had any properties available to rent within HAP limits, with three properties available.
Each local authority has its own standard HAP rates and a discretionary rate. The discretionary rate allows local authorities to increase the standard rent limits for households in need.
In Dublin, the discretionary rate allows up to an additional 50% on the standard rate; this is limited to 35% elsewhere in the country.
Just two properties were available through the standard HAP rate for single people or couple households. These were located in Dublin City North and Kildare.
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Leitrim had the lowest number of listings, with just four properties available to rent across the three days of the survey.
Government conscious of challenges for households
The Simon Communities uses Daft.ie to compile quarterly ‘Locked out of the Market’ reports.
A spokesperson for the Department of Housing said it was important to note that there are multiple different online platforms which may be used to advertise rental properties.
“Research carried out in 2022 by the RTB and Amarach also indicates that online advertising is not the sole mechanism for letting to tenants – 45% of medium-sized landlords used other methods of advertising their property for rent with 34% using word of mouth,” he said.
He said daft.ie was a single platform measuring rent asking prices, which tend to be higher than the actual rents paid.
The Department acknowledged that the Government was conscious of the challenges for households seeking to secure a property in the rental market.
However, he pointed out that each local authority now has statutory discretion to agree to a HAP payment up to 35% above the prescribed maximum rent limit to secure appropriate accommodation for a household that requires it, or up to 50% in the case of homeless households in the Dublin region.
He also noted that from available data, 71.8% of the total number of households being supported by HAP were benefiting from the additional flexibility, at an average rate of discretion of 30.5% above the relevant limit at the end of Q1 2026.
‘HAP is not working’
Executive Director of the Simon Communities of Ireland, Ber Grogan, said the HAP system needs a “complete reform”.
“HAP is not working. People are still locked out of the market. We see and hear this on the ground every single day, across the country,” she said.
“People are being discriminated against. There is one short-term solution that would make an immediate difference – increase the HAP limits.”
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Ms Grogan said that while HAP is not the answer and needs to be reformed, “for the moment we need it.”
“Seeing that there’s almost 50,000 tenancies across the country, we know that we can’t take that out of the social and affordable housing system.”
“So what we need to happen to make it actually accessible to people is for the HAP limits to be increased,” she said.
Compared with the March 2026 report, seven of the 16 study areas saw a reduction in the number of properties available to rent.
These include Athlone (nine properties), Cork City Suburbs (three properties), Dublin City North (17 properties), Co Leitrim (three properties), Limerick City Suburbs (one property), Limerick City Centre (one property), and Waterford City Centre (four properties).
June’s report saw an increase in properties available to rent in Cork City Centre (+21), Dublin City South (+117), Dublin City Centre (+37), Dundalk (+8), Galway City Suburbs (+17), Galway City Centre (+43), Kildare (+21) and Portlaoise (+7).
Sligo Town saw no change.
No properties were available through the standard HAP rate for couple or one-parent households with one or two children.
However, there were six properties available through discretionary HAP rates for those with one child.
These were located in Dublin City North (three properties), Dublin City South (two properties), and Kildare (one property).
For a couple or parent with two children, there were two unique properties available through discretionary HAP rates, as well as an additional six that overlapped with properties available to families with one child.
The two unique properties were based in Dublin City North and Dublin City South.
For single-person or couple households, there were nine properties available within discretionary HAP limits. Four were located in Dublin City North, two in Dublin City South and three in Dublin City Centre.
