Rent Pressure Zones Now Cover the Whole Country: A Map and Migration Plan for 2026

Before 1 March 2026, the Rent Pressure Zone designation was a patchwork. Most of Dublin, most of Cork, large parts of Galway and Limerick, and a long list of named Local Electoral Areas added one by one as their median rent and rent inflation crossed the qualifying threshold.

Working out whether your specific property was inside an RPZ involved looking up the full LEA list, which the RTB updated periodically, and matching it against the property address. Get the boundary wrong and you risked an over-cap rent review that the tenant could refer to the RTB.

That ambiguity is now gone. From 1 March 2026 every Local Electoral Area in the State is an RPZ. This piece is the map, the migration checklist and the practical answer to ‘do I have to do anything different now’.

The new map: every LEA in the State

Every Local Electoral Area in every Local Authority area is designated. Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork City and County, Donegal, Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, Galway City and County, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick City and County, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, South Dublin, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow. There is no exclusion.

For most landlords this changes nothing because their property was already in an RPZ. For landlords in previously-uncovered rural LEAs, the change is operational.

What the cap actually is

For tenancies that pre-date 1 March 2026, the maximum permissible rent increase at review is the lower of 2% per year or the HICP rate for the relevant 12-month period. Full mechanics in our RPZ guide.

For tenancies signed on or after 1 March 2026, the same cap applies, plus the new six-year minimum tenancy term.

The migration checklist

1. Identify all tenancies under your control. Pull the full list from your management system. If you have multiple systems, reconcile them.
2. Capture the last review date for each. The earliest you can serve a fresh notice is the previous review date plus 12 months minus 90 days.
3. Confirm the previous review was compliant. If a review in 2024-2025 was not capped (because the LEA was not then an RPZ), you are starting from a higher base, but every future review is capped.
4. Move all reviews to the lower-of-2%-or-HICP formula. Replace any custom escalation language in tenancy agreements with the prescribed RTB notice format.
5. Update your standing-order or direct-debit collection at every review to reflect the new compliant rent. Rentalize Pay does this automatically.

What you do not need to do

You do not need to immediately reduce existing rents. The cap applies to future reviews, not to the current rent.

You do not need to retroactively void historical rent reviews that were compliant when made. The standard you are held to is the standard at the time of each review.

You do not need to register a separate notice with the RTB to confirm RPZ designation. The designation is statutory now; every property is in.

How Rentalize handles this for you

Rentalize Pay and Rentalize Core both have the new nationwide RPZ designation built in. The system applies the lower-of-2%-or-HICP formula to every review, generates the prescribed RTB notice, stores the audit trail, and updates the rent collection mandate. Rentalize 360 does the same for 1-10 property landlords.

If you have not yet migrated tenancies to a software-managed review process, the next 12 months are the cheapest moment to do it. Every review you handle manually under the new regime is an audit-trail gap.

Frequently asked questions

Are there any non-RPZ areas left in Ireland?

No. From 1 March 2026 every Local Electoral Area is an RPZ.

What is the cap?

The lower of 2% per year or HICP, applied at every rent review.

Do I have to reduce existing rents?

No. The cap applies to future reviews. Existing rents are not affected.

What if my property was in a non-RPZ area before 1 March 2026?

Future reviews are capped from the new starting baseline. Past reviews under the old regime stand.

Does the cap apply between tenancies?

Yes, in most cases. Narrow exceptions for substantial refurbishment exist; the RTB tests them strictly.

Where is the live HICP rate published?

On the CSO website. Rentalize platforms pull it automatically and apply it to every review.

If you would like to see how Rentalize handles this in practice, you can book a 20-minute walkthrough. We will use one of your own properties as the worked example.