How Many Rent Privately in Ireland?
Census 2022 raised a red flag. 330,632 households marked on the census form that they rent privately. They marked this as distinct from owning their home, living rent free, or renting from a local authority or voluntary / co-operative housing body.
However, at the time of the census, only 246,453 tenancies were registered with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). This meant only 74.5% of privately rented properties were RTB registered, indicating a potentially large avoidance pattern by private landlords. As many as 84,179 landlords may have shunned RTB registration, it seemed.
However, after an exercise by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), a better picture has emerged of the 84,179 difference. The gap is most likely explained by informal rental arrangements, where landlords rent to family members and friends at rents below market rate. 47,754 properties are estimated to have these arrangements.
The CSO estimates the monthly rent on these properties averages to €806, a level closer to the typical room rent than the typical property rent! The CSO also found that rural areas are where informal renting arrangements are most likely to occur. The rent is likely to be even lower in these areas.
The CSO also found that 11,177 properties were misclassified as private rentals. This includes rent-a-room arrangements (where the property is actually owned by a person in the household) and local authority housing (which should have been marked as such on census night).
This leaves just 25,248 properties which are likely to be in the private market, but which should be registered with the RTB. This represents just 7.6% of the 330,632 private rentals marked as such on census night.
This exercise shows that avoidance of RTB registration is indeed happening, but at a much smaller scale than first suggested by the headline numbers.
The bigger learning from this exercise is that many private landlords aren’t profit maximisers. Those renting to family or friends at reduced rents are likely forgoing many thousands of euros each year to support the people in their lives.
