Private landlords fleeing 'two-tier system' - Davitt

Ireland's rental sector has become a "two-tier market system", Pat Davitt the Mullingar man who is chief of IPAV, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers, has said.

The "two tiers" are those who can apply market rents and those who, as a result of Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) legislation, find their situation is non-viable financially, Mr Davitt stated. He was reacting to the publication of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) annual report for 2023 which showed a drop of 22,474 in the number of private registered tenancies year-on-year in December 2023.

Mr Davitt said the figure confirmed what agents are continuing to see throughout the country, and pointed to likely increased pressure on rental levels, arising from a lack of supply of properties.

He said the lack of supply of suitable properties is impacting house prices and rents with both continuing to rise.

“The policy focus for most of the last decade has been too heavily weighted in favour of trying to stem the secondary effects of a lack of supply, such as with the introduction of RPZ legislation, and we’ve been seeing for a number of years at this stage the unintended consequences, such as private landlords fleeing the market,” Mr Davitt said.

He said RPZ legislation should have only ever been a short-term provision to give time for supply to catch up: “The longer the legislation is left in place the more serious the consequences, as much research points to,” he said.

"The International Monetary Fund report in November recommended the removal of rent caps and more recently Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor of Economics at Trinity College cited very strong evidence that they lead to higher rents for those not protected and to lower supply and poorer housing quality."

Mr Davitt said RPZ legislation, introduced in 2016, has had the effect of increasing rents that would not have increased to the same level if the legislation had not been introduced.

It also enabled large investors to set high rental levels, catering largely for the upper end of the market.

He said there should be a whole-of-Government emphasis on increasing the supply of homes.