The latest figures on Ireland’s malfunctioning rental market are stark. Unsurprisingly, market rents increased again – but the pace of the increase is at close-to-record levels. Nationally, the average market rent increased by 11.7 per cent in the year to March 2022, the highest rate of inflation since late 2016 (when it peaked at 11.8 per cent). The earlier peak in inflation in market rents was in mid-2014 and was 10.2 per cent, while Celtic Tiger rental inflation peaked at 9.7 per cent in mid-2007. Inflation in market rents is broadly based across the country at the moment. There are…