The average cost of renting a home in Ireland now stands at more than a thousand euro a month, according to Daft.

The property website has released its latest quarterly report, which has found the average rent is now €1,006.

It is the first time the average has gone over €1,000 since May 2008.

The biggest increase in the past year has been in Cork where rental inflation has gone up by 16% in just 12 months.

In Dublin, rental inflation since March of last year has gone up by 8.8% - while average rents are now 1.3% higher than at the peak 8 years ago.

As ever it is a case of supply and demand: as property prices are starting to soar, supply is drastically dropping.

With just over 3,000 properties available to rent through out the country, supply is now at its lowest point on record.

Economist at Trinity College and author of the Daft report, Ronan Lyons, has been breaking down the figures.

"Rents rose by a little less than 10% in the year to the end of the first quarter, so that's the year to March," he explained.

"There are some parts of the country that are seeing inflation in rents that's higher - for example in Cork and Galway City - and a couple of other parts, particularly in more rural areas, where rents aren't rising as fast. But more or less across the country now rents are rising and rising pretty rapidly," he added.

The latest figures have prompted an angry response from the charity sector, with the Simon Community calling access to affordable housing the biggest challenge facing Ireland.

Niamh Randall, National Spokesperson for the Simon Communities, said, "in the absence of social housing supply the private rented sector is the only hope for people in emergency accommodation to leave homelessness behind them but they are currently locked out due to rising rents.

"We are calling on the new Government to make addressing housing and homelessness their number one priority and made good on pre and post-election promises," she added.