Living in Portarlington, Co. Laois: Schools, Commute & House Prices 2026

Leinster house prices & rents › Laois › Living in Portarlington

Portarlington is a town in Co. Laois, about 64 minutes from Dublin city centre by car and on the rail line, 5 schools, 61.8% of households own their home. Living here costs a median €330,000 to buy or €1,188 a month to rent (a 4.3% gross yield).

Official CSO, Department of Education, Transport for Ireland, PPR & RTB data · 147 sales · updated July 2026

How Portarlington compares: at €330,000 it is 7% below the County Laois median of €355k. Its 4.3% gross yield is above the county average of 4.3%.Recent activity in Portarlington: latest recorded sale Jun 2026; 184 new homes approved in the last year; prices +22.2% year on year. This page updates as new official data lands.

Who lives in Portarlington — 61.8% own their home, full Census breakdown

Who lives in Portarlington

9,288 people live in Portarlington on Census 2022 night. 62% of households own their home and 33% rent, so Portarlington leans towards owner occupiers. The most common way to commute is by car (64%). It skews young: 24% are under 15 against 10% aged 65 and over. 30% of those who have finished education hold a third level qualification.

Source: CSO Census 2022 Small Area Population Statistics for the Portarlington built-up area, CC-BY 4.0.

Getting around and commuting

Nearest train station: Portarlington (1.9 km away), on several Dublin intercity lines

Public transport serving Portarlington — Rail + bus

Getting around Portarlington

Portarlington is served by 4 public-transport operators running 11 scheduled routes. Operators are Iarnród Éireann / Irish Rail, JJ Kavanagh, Slieve Bloom Coach Tours and TFI Local Link Laois Offaly.

Scheduled routes

• 806 - Portarlington - Monasterevin
• 827 - Mountmellick - Portarlington - Portlaoise
• 829 - Portlaoise - Portarlington - Tullamore
• LS1 - Borris-in-Ossory - Mount Lucas
• IW04 - Portarlington - Carlow
• UM14 - Portlaoise - Maynooth
• rail - Dublin - Galway
• rail - Dublin - Limerick
• rail - Dublin - Tralee
• rail - Dublin - Westport
• Commuter - Dublin - Portlaoise

Source: Transport for Ireland GTFS_All feed (NTA), CC-BY 4.0. Stops matched to the town within a 6 km radius; route list capped.

Commute to Dublin from Portarlington

Driving from Portarlington to Dublin city centre takes about 66 minutes by car on a clear run. That makes it the closest to Dublin of the 2 Laois towns we have routed by road.

Door-to-centre driving time routed on OpenStreetMap road data via OSRM, no live traffic. Comparison is against the Leinster commuter towns routed so far. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.

Schools in Portarlington

There are 4 primary and 1 post-primary schools in and around Portarlington.

Source: Department of Education, Data on Individual Schools. CC-BY 4.0.

Things to do in and around Portarlington

• Heritage nearby: Dunamase Castle (15 km) · Timahoe Round Tower (22 km) · Old Kilcullen Monastic Site (29 km)
• Walking trails in County Laois: Barrow Way · Abbeyleix Loops - Collins Bog Loop · Abbeyleix Loops - Killamuck Bog Loop · Brittas Forest Loop
• Nature reserves: Slieve Bloom Mountains Nature Reserve · Timahoe Esker Nature Reserve · Coolacurragh Wood Nature Reserve

Where Portarlington is

Map © OpenStreetMap contributors

What it costs: house prices and rent in Portarlington

What this means: New builds in Portarlington sell at about a 44% premium to second-hand homes (€374,999 vs €260,000).

Recent sales in Portarlington

Actual sale prices from the Property Price Register, verifiable at propertypriceregister.ie.

Portarlington median price, year by year

Average rent by size

Maximum legal rent increase in Portarlington

Since 1 March 2026 a rent review is capped at the lower of 2% a year (pro rata) or CPI inflation.

The full March 2026 rent review rules

Portarlington compared with County Laois

Rent or buy in Portarlington?

At a glance: €330,000 to buy versus €1,188 a month to rent, a 4.3% gross yield.

Local Property Tax in Portarlington

The median home (€330,000) falls in LPT Band 3, a base charge of €333 a year before Laois County Council's local adjustment factor. Use the calculator for your exact valuation.

Renting in Portarlington: the March 2026 rent rules

Every rent increase is now capped at the lesser of 2% a year (pro rata) or CPI inflation, nationwide since 1 March 2026. A review needs 90 days' notice on the RTB form, no more than one in any 12 months, and the notice must cite three comparable homes from the RTB Rent Register. Check any rent increase against the legal cap, or see average rents for every Leinster town.

Before you move: planning and flood

Recent development in Portarlington

In the 12 months to July 2026, 47 planning grants were recorded in and around Portarlington, including 184 new homes approved across those grants.

Source: Irish Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (ArcGIS, CC-BY 4.0). Granted applications keyed to the nearest town within 7 km. Homes column shows residential units in the application where recorded.

What this means: The 184 homes approved here in the last year are about 6% of Portarlington's roughly 3,297 households, a supply pipeline that typically eases price pressure.

Flood maps

For the modelled fluvial, coastal and pluvial flood extents around Portarlington, open the official OPW flood maps, the authoritative source for Portarlington, Laois.

View the official OPW flood maps for Portarlington →

Source: Office of Public Works, floodinfo.ie. No OPW flood-extent values are reproduced here.

County context

Planning permissions are reported at NUTS3 region level; counties in this region share a figure.

Sources: CSO F1001, CIA02, BHQ09. CC-BY 4.0.

Nearby Laois towns

Portlaoise · Mountmellick · Mountrath

All Laois house prices · All Leinster house prices

Sources: CSO Census 2022, Department of Education, Transport for Ireland, Property Price Register (PSRA), CSO RPPI, RTB via CSO. CC-BY. Figures verifiable at the official source.