Rents across the country have soared to a new all-time high of €1,200 per month.

Latest figures from Daft.ie show the average price in Dublin now stands at €1,774 per month, an increase of over 12% compared to the same time last year,

Cork experienced a jump of over 5%, Galway 9.8%, and Limerick rose by 10.9%.

Generally, rents are now 16% higher than their 2008 peak.

Ronan Lyons, author of the report, says attempts by the Government to curb rents do not seem to be working.

He observed: "There isn't a single part of the country where rents are increasing at less than 4% a year, which is what the rent pressure zones are designed to do.

"It's not clear to me that the system of rent pressure zones is working - in fact, it may be having the opposite effect."

He added: "We don't have any shortage of family homes. The problem is [...] we, as a country, are missing close to half a million apartments.

"My own estimate is that Dublin alone needs one apartment building of 200 homes a week for the next few decades."

The housing charity Focus Ireland, meanwhile, says it disagrees with Daft report's suggestion that rent controls are not the answer to the problem.

Mike Allen of Focus Ireland admits controls will not solve the underlying problem - but says they will help alleviate the symptoms.

He suggested: "If a patient has a fever, you need to deal with a fever so they don't die, and give them a chance to survive.

"Overheated rents is essentially a fever - we need to get that under control."